High-continuity genome assembly of the jellyfish Chrysaora quinquecirrha.

ABSTRACT

The Atlantic sea nettle ( Chrysaora quinquecirrha) has an important evolutionary position due to its high ecological value. However, due to limited sequencing technologies and complex jellyfish genomic sequences, the current C. quinquecirrha genome assembly is highly fragmented. Here, we used the most advanced high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technology to obtain high-coverage sequencing data of the C. quinquecirrha genome. We then anchored these data to the previously published contig-level assembly to improve the genome. Finally, a high-continuity genome sequence of C. quinquecirrha was successfully assembled, which contained 1 882 scaffolds with a N50 length of 3.83 Mb. The N50 length of the genome assembly was 5.23 times longer than the previously released one, and additional analysis revealed that it had a high degree of genomic continuity and accuracy. Acquisition of the high-continuity genome sequence of C. quinquecirrha not only provides a basis for the study of jellyfish evolution through comparative genomics but also provides an important resource for studies on jellyfish growth and development.