Chromosome-level genome assembly of the spotted sea bass, Lateolabrax maculatus.

Background: The spotted sea bass (Lateolabrax maculatus) is a valuable commercial fish that is widely cultured in China. While analyses using molecular markers and population genetics have been conducted, genomic resources are lacking.

Findings: Here, we report a chromosome-scale assembly of the spotted sea bass genome by high-depth genome sequencing, assembly, and annotation. The genome scale was 0.67 Gb with contig and scaffold N50 length of 31 Kb and 1,040 Kb, respectively. Hi-C scaffolding of the genome resulted in 24 pseudochromosomes containing 77.68% of the total assembled sequences. A total of 132.38 Mb repeat sequences were detected, accounting for 20.73% of the assembled genome. A total of 22, 015 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 96.52% were homologous to proteins in various databases. In addition, we constructed a phylogenetic tree using 1,586 single-copy gene families and identified 125 unique gene families in the spotted sea bass genome.

Conclusions: We assembled a spotted sea bass genome that will be a valuable genomic resource to understanding the biology of the spotted sea bass and will also lead to the development of molecular breeding techniques to generate spotted sea bass with better economic traits.