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ERGA-BGE-CBP chromosome-level genome assembly of the blind scorpion Belisarius xambeui Simon, 1879 (Belisariidae, Scorpiones), the most singular scorpion in Europe

List of Authors

  1. Sara Guirao-Rico
    ,  
  2. Vadim A. Pisarenco
    ,  
  3. Paula Escuer
    ,  
  4. Pau Balart-García
    ,  
  5. Marc Domènech
    ,  
  6. Adrià Bellvert
    ,  
  7. Silvia Adrián-Serrano
    ,  
  8. Alejandro Sánchez-Gracia
    ,  
  9. Miquel A. Arnedo
    ,  
  10. Julio Rozas
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Abstract

We present a chromosome-level reference genome for the blind scorpion Belisarius xambeui Simon, 1879 (Belisariidae, Scorpiones). The genome size estimated by flow cytometry (4.32 Gb) closely matches the final assembly size (3.98 Gb). The final assembly comprises 19,045 scaffolds, including 56 chromosome-level scaffolds (pseudochromosomes) that account for 90.08% of the total assembly. Nucleotide diversity across the genome was low, with an average π of 0.0018.

Corresponding author
Miquel A. Arnedo
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. This study was supported by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) under the Catalan Initiative for the Earth Biogenome Project (CBP; primera convocàtoria). The CPB is part of the global Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) and it is affiliated with the European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA). This work was also supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) grants (PID2019-103947GB, PID2019-105794GB, PID2022-137758NB-I00, PID2022-138477NB, and an FPI fellowship to V.A.P. PRE2020-095592) and FPU fellowship to SAS (FPU18/04086). Additional funding was also provided by Comissió Interdepartamental de Recerca i Innovació Tecnològica (2021SGR00279, 2021SGR0689).

Copyright
© 2026 Sara Guirao-Rico (Co-Author); Vadim A. Pisarenco (Co-Author); Paula Escuer (Co-Author); Pau Balart-García (Co-Author); Marc Domènech (Co-Author); Adrià Bellvert (Co-Author); Silvia Adrián-Serrano (Co-Author); Alejandro Sánchez-Gracia (Co-Author); Miquel A. Arnedo (Corresponding Author, Co-Author); Julio Rozas (Co-Author) Creative Commons License

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

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Authors & roles

Sara Guirao-Rico

Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Genetica Microbiologia i Estadistica, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Vadim A. Pisarenco

Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Genetica Microbiologia i Estadistica, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Paula Escuer

Universite de Neuchatel Institut de Biologie, Neuchâtel, Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

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

Pau Balart-García

Fish Evolution Research Group, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

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

Marc Domènech

Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Genetica Microbiologia i Estadistica, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

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

Adrià Bellvert

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat Greifswald Zoologisches Institut und Museum, Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

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

Silvia Adrián-Serrano

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Departament de Biologia Evolutiva Ecologia i Ciencies Ambientals, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

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

Alejandro Sánchez-Gracia

Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Genetica Microbiologia i Estadistica, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Miquel A. Arnedo

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Departament de Biologia Evolutiva Ecologia i Ciencies Ambientals, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – Review & Editing

Julio Rozas

Universitat de Barcelona Departament de Genetica Microbiologia i Estadistica, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Supervision, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-6839-9148

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