Mining of new biomaterial candidates based on the jellyfish genome information

Abstract

Three jellyfish genomes have been successfully assembled recently. In brief, two scyphozoans, Nemopolema nomurai resulted in a 213 Mb genome comprised 255 scaffolds, and an N50 length of 2.71 Mb, and Sanderia malayensis resulted in a 160 Mb genome comprised 165 scaffolds, and an N50 length of 3.44 Mb; one cubozoan, Carybdea brevipedalia resulted in a in a 840 Mb genome comprised 17 super-scaffolds, and an N50 length of 55.39 Mb. The bioinformatic analysis of their toxin composition revealed that these three jellyfish shared similar pattern of toxin-domains. During the systematic characterization of jellyfish toxins, we found that some members of a peptide toxin group showed that they have protective effects in nerve cells against Amyloid-β toxicity. Their potential to be drugs for cure and/or alleviate the symptom of dementia will be discussed.