Teleost genomic repeat landscapes in light of diversification rates and ecology

Repetitive DNA make up a considerable fraction of most eukaryotic genomes. In fish, transposable element (TE) activity has coincided with rapid species diversification. Here, we annotated the repetitive content in 100 genome assemblies, covering the major branches of the diverse lineage of teleost fish. We investigated if TE content correlates with family level net diversification rates and found support for a weak negative correlation. Further, we demonstrated that TE proportion correlates with genome size, but not to the proportion of short tandem repeats (STRs), which implies independent evolutionary paths. Marine and freshwater fish had large differences in STR content, with the most extreme propagation detected in the genomes of codfish species and Atlantic herring. Such a high density of STRs is likely to increase the mutational load, which we propose could be counterbalanced by high fecundity as seen in codfishes and herring. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13100-023-00302-9.