Scalable culture of the nudibranch Berghia stephanieae, an emerging research organism for molluscan development and neuroscience

Nudibranchs are shell-less, uncoiled, gastropod molluscs that exhibit many interesting biological and behavioral attributes, but are not well understood from a developmental or functional genomics perspective. Here we present the species Berghia stephanieae as an emerging experimental system, as it is ideal for studying both pre- and post-metamorphic developmental processes. Following early development via a stereotyped spiral cleavage program, B. stephanieae embryos make a lecithitrophic veliger larva (including a shell), and eventually hatch out of their egg cases as juveniles, hunting for their first meal, the sea anemone Exaiptasia. When raised at 27 C, juveniles hatch around 10 days post fertilization, and become gravid as early as 42 days. This archive contains 9 RNA-seq datasets from (1) multiple pooled embryogenesis stages, (2) multiple pooled juveniles, and adult tissues such as the (3) brain, (4) oral tentacles, (5) rhinophores, (6) proximal ceras, (7) distal ceras, (8) foot, and (9) tail. With these data we constructed a reference transcriptome for Berghia stephanieae.