Department of Research, eGnome, Inc., 26 Beobwon-ro 9-gil, Sonpa-gu, Seoul 05836, Republic of Korea.
Department of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Research Institute of Population Genomics, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Gigascience. 2022 Jul 9;11. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giac063.
Plazaster borealis has a unique morphology, displaying multiple arms with a clear distinction between disk and arms, rather than displaying pentaradial symmetry, a remarkable characteristic of echinoderms. Herein we report the first chromosome-level reference genome of P. borealis and an essential tool to further investigate the basis of the divergent morphology.
In total, 57.76 Gb of a long read and 70.83 Gb of short-read data were generated to assemble a de novo 561-Mb reference genome of P. borealis, and Hi-C sequencing data (57.47 Gb) were used for scaffolding into 22 chromosomal scaffolds comprising 92.38% of the genome. The genome completeness estimated by BUSCO was 98.0% using the metazoan set, indicating a high-quality assembly. Through the comparative genome analysis, we identified evolutionary accelerated genes known to be involved in morphogenesis and regeneration, suggesting their potential role in shaping body pattern and capacity of regeneration.
This first chromosome-level genome assembly of P. borealis provides fundamental insights into echinoderm biology, as well as the genomic mechanism underlying its unique morphology and regeneration.
北太平洋海盘车具有独特的形态，其腕明显区分于盘，具有多个腕，而非呈典型的五辐射对称，这是棘皮动物的显著特征。在此，我们报道了北太平洋海盘车的首个染色体水平参考基因组，这是进一步研究其形态差异基础的重要工具。
我们共生成了 57.76Gb 的长读长数据和 70.83Gb 的短读长数据，用于从头组装出 5.61Mb 的北太平洋海盘车参考基因组，Hi-C 测序数据（57.47Gb）则用于将基因组组装成 22 个染色体支架，包含基因组的 92.38%。利用后生动物集，通过 BUSCO 评估的基因组完整性达到 98.0%，表明组装质量很高。通过比较基因组分析，我们鉴定出了已知参与形态发生和再生的进化加速基因，提示其在塑造身体模式和再生能力方面的潜在作用。
北太平洋海盘车的首个染色体水平基因组组装为棘皮动物生物学提供了基本的见解，也为其独特形态和再生的基因组机制提供了基本的见解。
