De novo transcriptome assembly of the Qatari pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata

© 2019 The pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata is an iconic species in Qatar, representing an integral part of the nation's cultural heritage and one of the main economic foundations upon which the nation developed. During the early part of the 20th century, nearly half the Qatar population was involved in the pearl oyster industry. However, the fishery has undergone steady decline since the 1930s, and the species is now under threat due to multiple confounding pressures. This manuscript presents the first de novo transcriptome of the Qatari pearl oyster assembled into 30,739 non-redundant coding sequences and with a BUSCO completeness score of 98.4%. Analysis of the transcriptome reveals the close evolutionary distance to the conspecific animal Pinctada imbricata fucata but also highlights differences in immune genes and the presence of distinctive transposon families, suggesting recent adaptive divergence. This data is made available for all to utilise in future studies on the species. This publication was made possible by the NPRP award [NPRP9-394-1-090 “The Pearl Oyster: from national icon to guardian of Qatar's marine environment”] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The findings herein reflect the work, and are solely the responsibility, of the authors. In addition, the authors would like to thank Prof. Eduarda Santos for advice regarding sequencing requirements and Mr. Mark Chatting and Mr. Reyniel Gasang for their support in the collection of the samples.