The gene annotation file of <i>Cheilodactylus zonatus</i>

The spottedtail morwong (<i>Cheilodactylus zonatus</i>) is an economically important fish primarily feeding on crustaceans and mollusks, and is widely distributed in the western Pacific. However, no valid reference genome of <i>C. zonatus</i> has been available, which severely hinders further research on its biology and genomic breeding programs. Here, we presented a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of <i>C. zonatus</i> using PacBio sequencing and Hi-C technologies. The chromosome-level genome has a total length of 598.6Mb with a contig N50 of 25.86 Mb. Approximately 97.8% of the assembly lengths were anchored to 24 pseudochromosomes. In total, 26,083 protein-coding genes were predicted, among which 23,393 genes (89.6%) were functionally annotated. The completeness of the assembly was estimated to be 98.9% using BUSCO. In summary, the first reference genome of <i>G. zonatus </i>in this study will not only provide pivotal genetic resources for further biological and evolutionary studies of <i>G. zonatus</i>, but also benefit the development of genomic hybridization breeding in the artificial <i>C. zonatus</i> industry.