De novo transcriptome assembly and annotation for gene discovery in Salamandra salamandra at the larval stage

Dispersal is a key process in ecology and evolutionary biology, as it shapes biodiversity patterns over space and time. Mounting evidence is showing that attitude to disperse is often unevenly distributed among individuals within animal populations, and that individual personality and early life experience can have pivotal roles in the shaping of this attitude. Here, we contribute to the study of the genetic underpinnings of dispersal-related behavioral variation by assembling and annotating the first de novo transcriptome of the brain tissue of Salamandra salamandra. Although dispersal occurs mostly during the post-metamorphic terrestrial life stage in this species, variation in dispersal-related personality traits is already evident at the aquatic larval stage, making it an excellent candidate species for studies of carry-over effects. We employed a structured pipeline to de-novo assemble and annotate transcripts from RNA-Seq in a set of individual representatives of distinct behavioral profiles.