Abstract
The world-famous Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) plays a fundamental role in the Antarctic food chain. It resides in cold environments with the most abundant biomass to support the Antarctic ecology and fisheries. Here, we performed the first genome survey of the Antarctic krill, with genomic evidence for its estimated genome size of 42.1 gigabases (Gb). Such a large genome, however, is beyond our present capability to obtain a good assembly, although our sequencing data are a valuable genetic resource for subsequent polar biomedical research. We extracted 13 typical protein-coding gene sequences of the mitochondrial genome and analyzed simple sequence repeats (SSRs), which are useful for species identification and origin determination. Meanwhile, we conducted a high-throughput comparative identification of putative antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and antihypertensive peptides (AHTPs) from whole-body transcriptomes of the Antarctic krill and its well-known counterpart, the whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei; resident in warm waters). Related data revealed that AMPs/AMP precursors and AHTPs were generally conserved, with interesting variations between the two crustacean species. In summary, as the first report of estimated genome size of the Antarctic krill, our present genome survey data provide a foundation for further biological research into this polar species. Our preliminary investigations on bioactive peptides will bring a new perspective for the in-depth development of novel marine drugs.
Highlights
The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), widely distributed in the Southern Ocean, provides the most abundant biomass for Antarctic ecology and fisheries [1]
A Genome Survey of the Antarctic Krill was performed to estimate the genome size, and a survey peak was visible with high heterozygosi total, we obtained 911.0 Gb of raw reads sequenced by a BGISeq500 platform
Our present study provided a valuable genetic resource for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) comparisons between Antarctic krill and whiteleg shrimp
Summary
The Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), widely distributed in the Southern Ocean, provides the most abundant biomass for Antarctic ecology and fisheries [1]. Drugs 2020, 18, 185 the Antarctic food chains [2,3], with an estimated biomass of 100~500 million tons [3] With such a large number of Antarctic krill, the Southern Ocean supports an unprecedented abundance of upper trophic-level predators. Studies on the genetic resources of the Antarctic krill primarily focus on transcriptomes [1,3], simple sequence repeats (SSRs) [1], and the mitochondrial genome [6,7]. These data provide valuable foundation for in-depth genetic research on this polar species. No complete genome assembly is available for this important crustacean
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