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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Chromatin Immunoprecipitation in the Cnidarian Model System Exaiptasia diaphana
Published on: March 17, 2023
Chromosome-level reference genome of the jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum
Yunfeng Li1, Lei Gao1, Yongjia Pan1
1Liaoning Ocean and Fisheries Science Research Institute, 50 Heishijiao St., Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China.
Background:
Jellyfish belong to the phylum Cnidaria, which occupies an important phylogenetic location in the early-branching Metazoa lineages. The jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum is an important fishery resource in China. However, the genome resource of R. esculentum has not been reported to date.
Findings:
In this study, we constructed a chromosome-level genome assembly of R. esculentum using Pacific Biosciences, Illumina, and Hi-C sequencing technologies. The final genome assembly was ∼275.42 Mb, with a contig N50 length of 1.13 Mb. Using Hi-C technology to identify the contacts among contigs, 260.17 Mb (94.46%) of the assembled genome were anchored onto 21 pseudochromosomes with a scaffold N50 of 12.97 Mb. We identified 17,219 protein-coding genes, with an average CDS length of 1,575 bp. The genome-wide phylogenetic analysis indicated that R. esculentum might have evolved more slowly than the other scyphozoan species used in this study. In addition, 127 toxin-like genes were identified, and 1 toxin-related "hub" was found by a genomic survey.
Conclusions:
We have generated a chromosome-level genome assembly of R. esculentum that could provide a valuable genomic background for studying the biology and pharmacology of jellyfish, as well as the evolutionary history of Cnidaria.
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