Abstract
Stony corals often harbor intracellular photosynthetic dinoflagellate algae that receive dissolved inorganic nutrients. However, Dendrophyllia cribrosa is a nonsymbiotic stony coral distributed in the western Pacific. We assembled a chromosome-level D. cribrosa genome using PacBio and Hi-C technologies. The final assembly was 625 Mb, distributed on 14 chromosomes, and contained 30,493 protein-coding genes. The Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs analysis revealed a percentage of 96.8 of the metazoan genome. A comparative phylogenetic analysis revealed that D. cribrosa, which lacks symbionts, evolved to acquire cellular energy by expanding genes related to acyl-CoA metabolism and carbohydrate transporters. This species also has expanded immune-related genes involved in the receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway. In addition, we observed a specific expansion of calcification genes, such as coral acid-rich proteins and carbonic anhydrase, in D. cribrosa. This high-quality reference genome and comparative analysis provides insights into the ecology and evolution of nonsymbiotic stony corals.
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