The nuclear and mitochondrial genomes of the lined rockskipper, Istiblennius lineatus (Teleostei: Blenniidae)

The lined rockskipper, Istiblennenius linneatus (Valenciennes, 1836) is an amphibious fish of the family Blenniidae distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific intertidal coastal shores. Taxonomic delimitation of this species is tenuous, previously grouped in a species complex with two other cryptic species. To clarify their interrelationships and species boundaries, we here generate its nuclear and mitochondrial chromosome-scale genome assemblies. The assemblies were produced from Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) High Fidelity (HiFi) long-read data and Arima high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) technology. The nuclear genome assembly is 643.23 Mb in size, with a scaffold N50 of 24 Mb, a contig N50 of 6.39 Mb and a GC content of 43.34 %. We reconstructed the 24 pseudochromosomes expected from karyotype studies, which account for 86.95% of the genome assembly. After manual assembly curation, the obtained genome assembly is highly complete (97.3% BUSCO completeness) and free of haplotypic duplication and contaminations. The genome was annotated using direct RNA-seq and protein homology evidence, obtaining 27,357 gene models (95.4% BUSCO completeness). Genome size and macro-synteny is overall conserved with other available combtooth blenny genomes. The mitochondrial genome is 16.5 kb in length and has the gene content and order typical of the family and of most vertebrates. These new genomic resources can provide new insights into the ecology and evolutionary history of Istiblennius.