Chromosome-level genome assembly of Oncomelania hupensis: the intermediate snail host of Schistosoma japonicum

Background Schistosoma japonicum is a parasitic flatworm that causes human schistosomiasis, which is a significant cause of morbidity in China, the Philippines and Indonesia.Oncomelania hupensis (Gastropoda: Pomatiopsidae) is the unique intermediate host ofS. japonicum. A complete genome sequence ofO. hupensis will enable the fundamental understanding of snail biology as well as its co-evolution with theS. japonicum parasite. Assembling a high-quality reference genome ofO. hupehensis will provide data for further research on the snail biology and controlling the spread ofS. japonicum.Methods The draft genome was de novo assembly using the long-read sequencing technology (PacBio Sequel II) and corrected with Illumina sequencing data. Then, using Hi-C sequencing data, the genome was assembled at the chromosomal level. CAFE was used to do analysis of contraction and expansion of the gene family and CodeML module in PAML was used for positive selection analysis in protein coding sequences.Results A total length of 1.46 Gb high-qualityO. hupensis genome with 17 unique full-length chromosomes (2n = 34) of the individual including a contig N50 of 1.35 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 75.08 Mb. Additionally, 95.03% of these contig sequences were anchored in 17 chromosomes. After scanning the assembled genome, a total of 30,604 protein-coding genes were predicted. Among them, 86.67% were functionally annotated. Further phylogenetic analysis revealed thatO. hupensis was separated from a common ancestor ofPomacea canaliculata andBellamya purificata approximately 170 million years ago. Comparing the genome ofO. hupensis with its most recent common ancestor, it showed 266 significantly expanded and 58 significantly contracted gene families (P < 0.05). Functional enrichment of the expanded gene families indicated that they were mainly involved with intracellular, DNA-mediated transposition, DNA integration and transposase activity.Conclusions Integrated use of multiple sequencing technologies, we have successfully constructed the genome at the chromosomal-level ofO. hupensis. These data will not only provide the compressive genomic information, but also benefit future work on population genetics of this snail as well as evolutional studies betweenS. japonicum and the snail host.