The genome assembly and annotation of the Chinese cobra, Naja atra

GigaByte. 2023 Nov 20:2023:gigabyte99. doi: 10.46471/gigabyte.99. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

In China, 65 types of venomous snakes exist, with the Chinese Cobra Naja atra being prominent and a major cause of snakebites in humans. Furthermore, N. atra is a protected animal in some areas, as it has been listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Recently, due to the medical value of snake venoms, venomics has experienced growing research interest. In particular, genomic resources are crucial for understanding the molecular mechanisms of venom production. Here, we report a highly continuous genome assembly of N. atra, based on a snake sample from Huangshan, Anhui, China. The size of this genome is 1.67 Gb, while its repeat content constitutes 37.8% of the genome. A total of 26,432 functional genes were annotated. This data provides an essential resource for studying venom production in N. atra. It may also provide guidance for the protection of this species.

Grants and funding

Our project was financially supported by the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write (grant no. 2017B030301011). This work was also supported by China National GeneBank (CNGB).