Genomic Characterization of the Barnacle Balanus improvisus Reveals Extreme Nucleotide Diversity in Coding Regions.

ABSTRACT: Barnacles are key marine crustaceans in several habitats, and they constitute a common practical problem by causing biofouling on man-made marine constructions and ships. Despite causing considerable ecological and economic impacts, there is a surprising void of basic genomic knowledge, and a barnacle reference genome is lacking. We here set out to characterize the genome of the bay barnacle Balanus improvisus (= Amphibalanus improvisus) based on short-read whole-genome sequencing and experimental genome size estimation. We show both experimentally (DNA staining and flow cytometry) and computationally (k-mer analysis) that B. improvisus has a haploid genome size of ~ 740 Mbp. A pilot genome assembly rendered a total assembly size of ~ 600 Mbp and was highly fragmented with an N50 of only 2

SUBMITTER: Alm Rosenblad M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8270832 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature