Mining of Jellyfish Toxin Genes based on the Genome Information

Abstract

We have successfully generated and assembled a draft genome sequence of the giant jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai using PacBio RS long-read sequencing technology. Approximately 213-megabase genome of the jellyfish showed very high heterozyogocity. The assembly results showed that the N50 was 2,711,397 bases and the longest contig reached to 8,511,441 bases. A total of 18,528 high-quality protein-coding genes were predicted from 255 assembled scaffolds. The genome of N. nomurai showed that it has 747 toxin gene candidates which associated with 53 toxin domains, including phospholipase A2, matrix metalloprotease, Kazel-type serine protease inhibitor domain, and ShK-domain. The protein expression of these genes and their functional assay will be discussed.