Transcriptome and viral metagenome data from Diadema antillarum collected at St. Thomas (USVI) and Saba (Caribbean Netherlands) in Apr 2022

A mass mortality of the tropical echinoderm Diadema antillarum (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:124332) occurred beginning in January 2022 and continuing to at least July 2022. We sought to identify flaviviruses associated with this condition by performing viral metagenomics and tissue transcriptomics. We prepared these libraries from grossly normal, abnormal and reference specimens collected from St Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), and Saba, Caribbean Netherlands. This dataset includes the accession information for the sequences performed and archived at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Sequence Read Archive. While we were unsuccessful in recovering flaviviruses from tissues of these organisms, we were able to detect additional pathogenic agents (Philaster apodigitiformis; Ciliophora) from transcriptomes.