De novo Assembly and Analysis of Tissue-Specific Transcriptomes of the Edible Red Sea Urchin Loxechinus albus Using RNA-Seq

Edible red sea urchin (Loxechinus albus) is an endemic species of echinoderm distributed along the Chilean coasts. This resource has been overexploited in recent years, depleting their natural populations. At present, there are few reported gene sequences available in public databases, restricting the molecular studies associated with aquaculture for this species. The aim of this study was to present the first annotated reference transcriptome of L. albus using NGS technologies and the differential expression transcripts analysis of the evaluated tissues. The transcriptome data obtained in this study will serve as a reference for future molecular research in the edible red sea urchin and other sea urchin species. Edible red sea urchin (Loxechinus albus) is an endemic echinoderm species of the Chilean coasts. The worldwide demand for high-quality gonads of this species has addressed the depletion of its natural populations. Studies on this sea urchin are limited, and genomic information is almost nonexistent. Hence, generate a transcriptome is crucial information that will considerably enrich molecular data and promote future findings for the L. albus aquaculture. Here, we obtained transcriptomic data of the edible red sea urchin by Illumina platform. Total RNA was extracted from gonads, intestines, and coelomocytes of juvenile urchins, and samples were sequenced using MiSeq Illumina technology. A total of 91,119,300 paired-end reads were de novo assembled, 185,239 transcripts produced, and a reference transcriptome created with 38.8% GC content and an N50 of 1769 bp. Gene ontology analysis revealed notable differences in the expression profiles between gonads, intestines, and coelomocytes, allowing the detection of transcripts associated with specific biological processes and KEGG pathways. These data were validated using 12 candidate transcripts by real-time qPCR. This dataset will provide a valuable molecular resource for L. albus and other species of sea urchins.