De novo transcriptome assembly of Acartia tonsa adults using Nanopore long-read sequencing

Acartia tonsa is a calanoid copepod with a cosmopolitan distribution. It generally reaches relatively high abundances and often becomes the dominant zooplankton species during summer, making it the most numerous taxon in several ecosystems. Its ecological relevance makes it a useful bioindicator organism for assessing the toxicity of various compounds. However, transcriptomic assemblies of A. tonsa using long-read technologies have not yet been described. The use of long-read sequencing technologies in transcriptomics allows the study of alternative splicing, structural variations and alternative polyadenylation sites. In this study, we present a de novo transcriptome of A. tonsa adult copepods exposed to different neonicotinoids obtained from Nanopore sequences. Our transcriptome exhibits higher completeness and longer sequences than the largest assemblies reported previously. We also provide a complete annotation by sequence homology (NR database), domain identification (InterProScan) and functional classification (Gene Ontology). Our transcriptome represents a solid baseline for further transcriptomic studies on this copepod and, specifically, its response to currently used pesticides.