Comparative analysis of the integument transcriptomes of three chromatic phenotypes of Neocaridina denticulate

<i>Neocaridina denticulate</i>, an important ornamental shrimp, has different external colors. Red, yellow and transparency are important external color of <i>N. denticulate</i>. The three color strains have been bred for more than ten years and gained stable phenotype of external color. In order to unravel the molecular mechanism of the three integument colors, a comprehensive dataset of <i>N. denticulate</i> was generated by sequencing the integument of three chromatic phenotypes using the Illumina Hiseq 4000 system. Transcriptomes were assembled using Trinity de novo assembly followed by annotation. The gene abundances were calculated and normalized to reads per kb per million reads (RPKM). Differential expression results were confirmed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). This transcriptomic data set for <i>N. denticulate</i> would serve as an important reference data for genomic and genetic studies in this shrimp and related species.