Data from: Draft genome of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata)

Freshwater eels (Anguilla sp.) have large economic, cultural, ecological
and aesthetic importance worldwide, but they suffered more than 90%
decline in global stocks over the past few decades. Proper genetic
resources, such as sequenced, assembled and annotated genomes, are
essential to help plan sustainable recoveries by identifying
physiological, biochemical and genetic mechanisms that caused the declines
or that may lead to recoveries. Here, we present the first sequenced
genome of the American Eel. This genome contained 305,043 contigs (N50 =
7,397) and 79,209 scaffolds (N50 = 86,641) for a total size of 1.41 Gb,
which is in the middle of the range of previous estimations for this
species. In addition, protein coding regions, including introns and
flanking regions, are very well represented in the genome, as 95.2% of the
458 core eukaryotic genes and 98.8% of the 248 ultra-conserved subset were
represented in the assembly. and a total of 24,564 genes were annotated
for future functional genomics studies. We performed a candidate gene
analysis to compare three genes among all three freshwater eel species
and, congruent with the phylogenetic relationships, Japanese eel (A.
japanica) exibited the most divergence. Overall, the sequenced genome
presented in this study is a crucial addition to the presently available
genetic tools to help guide future conservation efforts of Freshwater
eels.