Astacus astacus Transcriptome or Gene expression

In Europe, the noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) is threatened by invasive North American crayfish species carrying and spreading the oomycete pathogen Aphanomyces astaci. The innate immune system of the noble crayfish is often too inefficient and slow to successfully combat the pathogen and infection leads to crayfish death usually within a few days or weeks. Thus, transcriptomic data for the identification of candidate genes are crucial for future genomic research aimed at understanding how the crayfish plague infection affects the innate immune system of noble crayfish. We generated RNA-seq data to assemble the complete transcriptome of the noble crayfish from four tissues (abdominal muscle, hepatopancreas, ovaries, antennal gland). This first transcriptome assembly is an important foundation for future genomic research on the noble crayfish when infected with the crayfish plague disease agent A. astaci.