Chromosome-level genome assembly of the spangled emperor, Lethrinus nebulosus (Forsskål 1775)

Spangled emperor, Lethrinus nebulosus (Forsskål 1775), is a tropical marine fish of economic and cultural importance throughout the Indo-West Pacific. It is one of the most targeted recreational fishes in the Gascoyne Coast Bioregion of Western Australia where it serves as an indicator species for recreational fishing. Here, we present a highly accurate, near-gapless, chromosome-level, haplotype-phased reference genome assembly of L. nebulosus (Lethrinus nebulosus (Spangled Emperor) genome, fLetNeb1.1; PRJNA1074345), the first for the species and the first high-quality genome representative of the family Lethrinidae. The 1.09 Gb genome was assembled from PacBio HiFi and Dovetail Omni-C proximity ligation sequencing data. The contig N50 is 21-24 Mbp and BUSCO completeness greater than 99%. A preliminary gene annotation identified 24,583 genes with the predicted transcriptome achieving a BUSCO completeness score of 99.1% This resource will facilitate genomic studies to inform the sustainable management of L. nebulosus and other Lethrinids.