De novo genome assembly of the land snail Candidula unifasciata (Mollusca: Gastropoda)

Abstract

Among all molluscs, land snails are an economically and scientifically interesting group comprising edible species, alien species and agricultural pests. Yet, despite its high diversity, the number of whole genomes publicly available is still scarce. Here, we present the draft genome assembly of the land snail Candidula unifasciata, a widely distributed species along central Europe, which belongs to Geomitridae family, a group highly diversified in the Western-Palearctic region. We performed a whole genome sequencing, assembly and annotation of an adult specimen based on PacBio and Oxford Nanopore long read sequences as well as Illumina data. A genome of about 1.29 Gb was generated with a N50 length of 246 kb. More than 60% of the assembled genome was identified as repetitive elements, and 22,464 protein-coding genes were identified in the genome, where the 62.27% were functionally annotated. This is the first assembled and annotated genome for a geometrid snail and will serve as reference for further evolutionary, genomic and population genetic studies of this important and interesting group.