Holobiont transcriptome of colonial scleractinian coral Alveopora japonica

Abstract

Climate change rapidly warms the ocean and marine species often move northwards for suitable habitats. Stony coral, Alveopora japonica, is observed more frequently for the last few years in temperate sea like Jeju Island, South Korea. To understand the ecological consequences such as habitat formation and fate of this species in changing environment, unraveling the genetic makeup of the species is essential. We sequenced the transcriptome of the A. japonica holobionts using Illumina HiSeq2000 platform. De novo assembly and analysis of coding regions predicted 108,636 coding sequences consisted of the coral host and residing Symbiodinium. Homology analysis showed the gene contents from our assembly are comparable to other sequenced corals and Symbiodiniums. The reference assembly of A. japonica will be a valuable resource to study the ecological characteristics of this species in the marine benthic ecosystem.