Anguidae lizard (Ophisaurus gracilis) genome assembly data.

The evolutionary transition from a lizard-like body to a snake-like body form is one of the most important transformations in reptilian evolution. The increasing number of reptilian genomes allows a deeper understanding of vertebrate evolution, although the genetic basis underlying the loss of limbs in reptiles remains enigmatic. Here we report the sequencing, assembly, and annotation of the genome of Asian glass lizard Ophisaurus gracilis, which is a limbless lizard species with an elongated snake-like body form.
The sequencing of the O. gracilis genome using the Illumina HiSeq2000 platform resulted in a total of 274.20 Gbp raw data, which was subsequently filtered and assembled to a final assembly of 1.78 Gbp, comprising 6,717 scaffolds with N50=1.27 Mbp. Based on the k-mer estimated genome size of 1.71 Gbp, the assembly appears to be near 100% complete. A total of 19,513 protein coding genes were predicted, and 884.06 Mbp repeat sequences (approximately half of the genome) were annotated. The draft genome of O. gracilis shows similar characteristics to both lizards and snakes, and represents a substantial addition to existing reptilian genomes available for comparative analysis.

Read the peer-reviewed publication(s):

• Song, B., Cheng, S., Sun, Y., Zhong, X., Jin, J., Guan, R., Murphy, R. W., Che, J., Zhang, Y., & Liu, X. (2015). A genome draft of the legless anguid lizard, Ophisaurus gracilis. GigaScience, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13742-015-0056-7

Accessions (data included in GigaDB):

SRA: SRP052050