Supporting data for "A chromosomal-level genome assembly for the giant African snail Achatina fulica"

Achatina fulica (A. fulica), also called the giant African snail, is the largest species in the reported terrestrial mollusks. Due to its voracious appetite, wide environmental adaptability, high growth rate and reproductive capacity, the species caused a worldwide invasion, mainly in Southeast Asia, Japan, the western Pacific islands and China. A. fulica is a pest that is able to damage agricultural crops, as well as an intermediate host of many parasites that can threaten human health. However, genomic information of A. fulica is still limited, hindering genetic and genomic studies with the aim to invasion control and management of the species. Using Kmer-based method, we estimated the A. fulica genome size to be 2.12 Gb with a high repeat content up to 71%. About 101.6 Gb genomic long-read data of A. fulica were generated from the PacBio sequencing platform and assembled to the first A. fulica genome of 1.85 Gb with a contig N50 length of 726 kb. Using contact information from the Hi-C sequencing data, we successfully anchored 99.32% contig sequences into 31 chromosomes, leading to the final contig and scaffold N50 length of 721 kb and 59.6 Mb, respectively. The continuity, complet ness and accuracy were evaluated by genome comparison with other mollusk genomes, BUSCO assessment and genomic read mapping. 23,726 protein-coding genes were predicted from the assembled genome, among which 96.34% of the genes were functionally annotated. The phylogenetic analysis using whole genome protein-coding genes revealed thatA. fulica separated from the common ancestor with Biomphalaria glabrata around 182 million years ago.
As our best knowledge, the A. fulica genome was the first terrestrial mollusk genome reported so far. The chromosome sequences of A. fulica will provide the research community a valuable resource for the population genetics and environmental adaptation studies for the species, and furthermore, for the chromosome level of evolution investigation within mollusks