Chromosome-level genome assembly of the sea urchin Glyptocidaris crenularis

The sea urchin Glyptocidaris crenularis, is the only species of genus Glyptocidaris (family Phymosomatidae), distributed in the northern Yellow Sea of China and in parts of the Sea of Japan. As a major edible sea urchin species, it attracts significant research attention due to the nutritional and economic values. In this study, the genome of G. crenularis was constructed by using Illumina short read, Pacbio length read and Hi-C sequencing technology. The genome consists of 22 chromosomes, which is different from sea urchins within the family Strongylocentrotidae (Strongylocentrotus intermedius, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus, and Mesocentrotus franciscanus) and the family Echinometridae (Anthocidaris crassispina) all possess 21 chromosomes number. The sequence length is 772.09 Mb, and Scaffold N50 length is 33.67 Mb. A total of 18965 genes were annotated, 94.72% of which were functionally annotated. The genome provides valuable genomic resources for the genetic analysis of important economic traits of G. crenularis and the evolution analysis of sea urchin species.