Genomic resources for Linckia laevigata

This is a dataset that accompanies the following paper.

Trimble, Caleb J; Laumer, Christopher E.; Lamare, Miles F.; Carter, Hugh F.; Maria Byrne; Fellner, Matthias; Williams, Suzanne T.; Kenny, Nathan J. (2025) The genome of the charismatic sea star Linckia laevigata. Genome Biology and Evolution (submitted)

Abstract
Linckia laevigata is a tropical sea star commonly found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans and is one of the top ten-most collected invertebrates, often encountered in the aquarium trade. It has been the subject of investigations into population structure, biodiversity and ecology, particularly regarding gene flow among populations throughout its range, and has been included in phylogenetic and systematic studies. Here we present and describe a high-quality genome assembly for L. laevigata.

The genome assembly is 585.97 Mb in length, with a scaffold N50 of 3 Mb. The genome has a typical repeat (36.99%) and GC content (41.33%), when compared with other echinoderm datasets. Our genome annotation recovers 16,178 genes, with high (89.4%) recovery of the metazoan BUSCO set. This novel resource will provide a model organism for studying the biogeography of the tropical Indo-West Pacific region, and more specifically facilitate the investigation of a range of sea star traits at the genomic level.

We also provide Illumina and Nanopore transcriptomic datasets used to help annotate the genome.