Genome analysis of Lagocephalus sceleratus: unraveling the genomic aspects of a successful invader

The Tetraodontidae family encompasses several species which attract scientific interest interms of their ecology and evolution. However, the genomic resources and especially referenceassemblies are sparse for the members of this family. The silver-cheeked toadfish(Lagocephalus sceleratus) is a well-known 'invasive sprinter' that has invaded and spread, lessthan a decade, throughout the Eastern and part of the Western Mediterranean Sea from the RedSea through the Suez Canal. In this study, we focus on the construction of the first high-qualitygenome assembly of L. sceleratus and the exploration of its evolutionary adaptations. Theresulted assembly consisted of 235 contigs (N50 = 11,3 Mb) with a total size of 360 Mb andyielded 98% BUSCO completeness. The genome possesses 21,251 predicted encoding geneswith annotation of 20,578. The phylogenomic analysis positioned L. sceleratus as sister speciesto T. nigroviridis and gene family evolution analysis revealed rapid expansion and contractionof 28 and 13 gene families, respectively. Several genes of immune response have experiencedrapid expansion, suggesting their important role in L. sceleratus' successive colonisation. Thehigh-quality genome assembly built here is expected to set the ground for future studies on thisfocal species' invasive biology.