Chromosome-level genome assembly of marine diatom Skeletonema tropicum

Skeletonema tropicum is a marine diatom of the genus Skeletonema that also includes many well-known species including S. marinoi. S. tropicum is a high temperature preferring species thriving in tropical ocean regions or temperate ocean regions during summer-autumn. However, mechanisms of ecological adaptation of S. tropicum remain poorly understood due partially to the lack of a high-quality whole genome assembly. Here, we report the first high-quality chromosome-scale genome assembly for S. tropicum, using cutting-edge technologies including PacBio single molecular sequencing and high-throughput chromatin conformation capture. The assembled genome has a size of 78.78 Mb with a scaffold N50 of 3.17 Mb, anchored to 23 pseudo-chromosomes. In total, 20,613 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 17,757 (86.14%) genes were functionally annotated. Collinearity analysis of the genomes of S. tropicum and S. marinoi revealed that these two genomes were highly homologous. This chromosome-level genome assembly of S. tropicum provides a valuable genomic platform for comparative analysis of mechanisms of ecological adaption.