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ERGA-BGE reference genome of Xylophaga dorsalis - a common deep-sea wood-boring bivalve with Atlantic-Mediterranean distribution

List of Authors

  1. Sergi Taboada ,  
  2. Carlota Gracia-Sancha
    ,  
  3. Carles Galià-Camps
    ,  
  4. Astrid Böhne ,  
  5. Rita Monteiro ,  
  6. Thomas Marcussen ,  
  7. Rebekah A. Oomen ,  
  8. Torsten H. Struck ,  
  9. Marta Gut ,  
  10. Laura Aguilera ,  
  11. Francisco Câmara Ferreira
    ,  
  12. Fernando Cruz ,  
  13. Jèssica Gómez-Garrido ,  
  14. Tyler S. Alioto ,  
  15. Fergal Martin
    ,  
  16. Anna Lazar ,  
  17. Leanne Haggerty ,  
  18. Chiara Bortoluzzi
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Abstract

Xylophaga dorsalis is a common Atlantic-Mediterranean mollusc that plays a crucial role in deep-sea habitats, where it digests wood that reaches the seabed through a unique symbiosis with specialised bacteria. The reference genome of X. dorsalis thus offers a crucial resource for uncovering the genetic basis of the species adaptability to wood bore in deep-water ecosystems. The entirety of the genome sequence was assembled into 18 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules and 1 mitochondrial genome. This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 0.451 Gb, composed of 1,259 contigs and 320 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 1.30 Mb and 25.4 Mb, respectively. The genome assembly encompasses 39,720 protein-coding genes (70,084 transcripts) and 12,153 non-coding genes.

Corresponding author
Chiara Bortoluzzi
0000-0001-6589-6635
Grant information

Biodiversity Genomics Europe (Grant no. 101059492) is funded by Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment call (REA.B.3); co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract numbers 22.00173 and 24.00054; and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme. ST received funding from the grant PID2020-117115GA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and from the grant CNS2023-144572 and by the Ramón y Cajal grant RYC2021-03152-I, funded by the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Union «NextGenerationEU»/PRTR». ST also received funding from the SponBIODIV project, funded by Biodiversa+, the European Biodiversity Partnership under the 2021 to 2022 BiodivProtect joint call for research proposals, co-funded by the European Commission (GA no. 101052342) and with the funding organizations Fundación Biodiversidad.

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright
© 2026 Sergi Taboada (Co-Author); Carlota Gracia-Sancha (Co-Author); Carles Galià-Camps (Co-Author); Astrid Böhne (Co-Author); Rita Monteiro (Co-Author); Thomas Marcussen (Co-Author); Rebekah A. Oomen (Co-Author); Torsten H. Struck (Co-Author); Marta Gut (Co-Author); Laura Aguilera (Co-Author); Francisco Câmara Ferreira (Co-Author); Fernando Cruz (Co-Author); Jèssica Gómez-Garrido (Co-Author); Tyler S. Alioto (Co-Author); Fergal Martin (Co-Author); Anna Lazar (Co-Author); Leanne Haggerty (Co-Author); Chiara Bortoluzzi (Corresponding Author, Co-Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Authors & roles

Sergi Taboada

Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, CSIC, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Madrid, 28006, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1669-1152

Carlota Gracia-Sancha

Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, CSIC, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Madrid, 28006, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing

Carles Galià-Camps

Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, CSIC, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN), Madrid, 28006, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing

Astrid Böhne

Museum Koenig Bonn, Adenauerallee 127, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Bonn, 53113, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1284-3115

Rita Monteiro

Museum Koenig Bonn, Adenauerallee 127, Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Bonn, 53113, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1374-4474

Thomas Marcussen

Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Centre for Ecological & Evolutionary Synthesis, Blindernveien 31, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0371, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1960-9508

Rebekah A. Oomen

Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Centre for Ecological & Evolutionary Synthesis, Blindernveien 31, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0371, Norway

Department of Biological Sciences, 100 Tucker Park Road, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Saint John, E2K5E2, Canada

Tjärnö Marine Laboratory, Hättebäcksvägen 7, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 45296, Sweden

Centre for Coastal Research, Universitetsveien 25, University of Agder, Kristiansand, 4630, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-2094-5592

Torsten H. Struck

Natural History Museum, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0318, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-3280-6239

Marta Gut

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-4063-7159

Laura Aguilera

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-8631-8778

Francisco Câmara Ferreira

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Fernando Cruz

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-4098-8829

Jèssica Gómez-Garrido

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-6409-8009

Tyler S. Alioto

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-2960-5420

Fergal Martin

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Anna Lazar

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-9533-1675

Leanne Haggerty

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, CB10 1SD, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-8843-3596

Chiara Bortoluzzi

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Amphipôle, Quartier UNIL-Sorge, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Visualization, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-6589-6635

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