Chromosomal-level genome assembly of the reef gardener long-spine urchin, Diadema setosum

The long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum is an algal and coral feeder widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific and can cause severe bioerosion on the reef community.<b> </b>Nevertheless, the lack of genomic information has hindered the study its ecology and evolution. Here, we report the chromosomal-level genome (885.8 Mb) of the long-spined sea urchin D. setosum using a combination of PacBio long-read sequencing and Omni-C scaffolding technology. The assembled genome contained scaffold N50 length of 38.3 Mb, 98.1 % of BUSCO (Geno, metazoa_odb10) genes, and with 98.6% of the sequences anchored to 22 pseudo-molecules/chromosomes. A total of 27,478 genes including 23,030protein-coding genes were annotated. The high-quality genome of D. setosum presented here provides a significant resource for further understanding on the ecological and evolutionary studies of this coral reef associated sea urchin.