The genome of the holothuroid Parastichopus tremulus.

Abstract

The sea cucumber Parastichopus tremulus is an important holothuroid species inhabiting the eastern North Atlantic Ocean benthic zone at depths from about 20 to 3000 m. Geographical distribution is from the Barents Sea in the north to the Canary Islands in the south. Along with the increasing commercial interest of new sea cucumber species, research into sea cucumber biology has also advanced. Recently, the genomes of tropical sea cucumber species have become available. However, genomes of cold-water sea cucumbers are still lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, both the mitochondrial genome and the nuclear genome of P. tremulus have been sequenced and assembled. Mitochondrial genome size and gene-organization closely matched what has been found for other holothuroids of the Stichopodidae family. The total nuclear genome assembly length was found to be 775 Mb at 24× coverage and achieved a final BUSCO completeness score of 87.2%.