Supporting data for "High-quality genome assemblies from key Hawaiian coral species"

Coral reefs house about 25% of marine biodiversity and are critical for the livelihood of many communities by providing food, tourism revenue, and protection from wave surge. These magnificent ecosystems are under existential threat from anthropogenic climate change. Whereas extensive ecological and physiological studies have addressed coral response to environmental stress, high-quality reference genome data are lacking for many of these species. The latter issue hinders efforts to understand the genomic and genetic basis of stress resistance and to design informed coral conservation strategies. <br>We report genome assemblies from four key Hawaiian coral species, <i>Montipora capitata, Pocillopora acuta, Pocillopora meandrina</i>, and <i>Porites compressa</i>. These species, or members of these genera, are distributed worldwide and therefore of broad scientific and ecological importance. For <i>M. capitata</i>, an initial assembly was generated from short-read Illumina and long-read PacBio data, which was then scaffolded into 14 putative chromosomes using Omni-C sequencing. For <i>Poc. acuta, Poc. meandrina</i>, and <i>Por. compressa</i>, high-quality assemblies were generated using short-read Illumina and long-read PacBio data. The <i>Poc. acuta</i> assembly is from a triploid individual, making it the first reference genome of a non-diploid coral animal. <br>These assemblies are significant improvements over available data and provide invaluable resources for supporting multi-omics studies into coral biology, not just in Hawaii, but also in other regions, where related species exist. The <i>Poc. acuta</i> assembly gives us, for the first time, a platform for studying polyploidy in corals, and its role in genome evolution and stress adaptation in these organisms.

珊瑚礁孕育了约25%的海洋生物多样性，同时通过提供食物、旅游收入以及抵御海浪侵袭，对众多社区的生计至关重要。这些壮丽的生态系统正面临着人为气候变化带来的存亡威胁。尽管已有大量生态学与生理学研究探讨了珊瑚对环境胁迫的响应，但多数此类物种仍缺乏高质量的参考基因组数据。这一问题阻碍了学界解析珊瑚抗逆性的基因组与遗传基础，以及制定有据可依的珊瑚保护策略的相关工作。
本研究报道了4种关键夏威夷珊瑚物种的基因组组装结果，分别为<i>Montipora capitata</i>、<i>Pocillopora acuta</i>、<i>Pocillopora meandrina</i>及<i>Porites compressa</i>。这些物种或其同属类群广泛分布于全球海域，因此具有广泛的科学与生态学研究价值。对于<i>Montipora capitata</i>，研究团队首先基于Illumina短读长测序（Illumina）与PacBio长读长测序（PacBio）数据构建了初始组装结果，随后通过Omni-C测序（Omni-C）技术将其锚定至14条推定染色体。对于<i>Poc. acuta</i>、<i>Poc. meandrina</i>及<i>Por. compressa</i>，研究团队通过Illumina短读长测序（Illumina）与PacBio长读长测序（PacBio）数据构建了高质量的基因组组装结果。其中<i>Poc. acuta</i>的组装结果来自一个三倍体个体，这是全球首个非二倍体珊瑚动物的参考基因组。
本次报道的基因组组装结果较现有公开数据有显著提升，可为珊瑚生物学的多组学研究提供宝贵资源支持，其应用范围不仅局限于夏威夷地区，也涵盖其他存在相关珊瑚物种的区域。<i>Poc. acuta</i>的基因组组装结果首次为学界研究珊瑚的多倍体现象，以及该现象在该类群基因组演化与胁迫适应中的作用提供了研究平台。