The whole genome and full-length transcriptome of mangrove red snapper Lutjanus argentimaculatus , has been sequenced and assembled by scientists of Chennai based Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture (ICAR-CIBA). The fish is a valuable seafood commodity of economic value, aquaculture importance and high consumer demand and its breeding has been successful at ICAR-CIBA, Chennai. The assembled whole genome of fish is of 1.03 Gb size comprising of 400 scaffolds with N50 of 33.8 Mb and was assessed to be 97.2% complete upon benchmarking with BUSCO and was discovered to contain 27,172 protein coding genes. The genome is an important resource for mining and discovery of genes and variants for adaptive traits. The research findings are published in Scientific Data journal, published by Nature group of journals. The decoded genome information will help in enhancing growth potential, reproduction and maturation and other desired economically important traits of this fish. The resources make the way for the application of genomic selection programmes in aquaculture and fisheries, which will contribute significantly in genetic improvement of farmed fish for sustainable production. The research scientists from ICAR-CIBA included M.S.Shekhar, Vinaya Kumar Katneni, Ashok Kumar Jangam, J. Raymond Jani Angel, and M. Kailasam. The Genome Sequencing Project is financially supported by the ICAR-Consortium Research Platform on Genomics, and coordinated by Dr. Joykrushna Jena, Deputy Director General (Fisheries Science), ICAR, New Delhi and Dr. Vindhya Mohindra, ICAR-NBFGR, Lucknow.
