Gene prediction for: A reference genome for ecological restoration of the sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia helianthoides

Wildlife diseases, such as the sea star wasting (SSW) epizootic that
outbroke in the mid-2010s, appear to be associated with acute and/or
chronic abiotic environmental change; dissociating the effects of
different drivers can be difficult. The sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia
helianthoides, was the species most severely impacted during the SSW
outbreak, which overlapped with periods of anomalous atmospheric and
oceanographic conditions, and there is not yet a consensus on the
cause(s). Genomic data may reveal underlying molecular signatures that
implicate a subset of factors and, thus, clarify past events while also
setting the scene for effective restoration efforts. To advance this goal,
we used Pacific Biosciences HiFi long sequencing reads and Dovetail Omni-C
proximity reads to generate a highly contiguous genome assembly that was
then annotated using RNA-seq-informed gene prediction. The genome assembly
is 484 Mb long, with contig N50 of 1.9 Mb, scaffold N50 of 21.8 Mb, BUSCO
completeness score 96.1%, and 22 major scaffolds consistent with prior
evidence that sea star genomes comprise 22 autosomes. These statistics
generally fall between those of other recently assembled chromosome-scale
assemblies for two species in the distantly related asteroid genus
Pisaster. These novel genomic resources for Pycnopodia helianthoides will
underwrite population genomic, comparative genomic, and phylogenomic
analyses — as well as their integration across scales — of SSW and
environmental stressors. This data resource contains the files associated
with gene prediction.