We present a genome assembly from an individual Theonella swinhoei (demosponge; Porifera; Demospongiae; Tetractinellida; Theonellidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 144.15 megabases. Most of the assembly (98.21%) is scaffolded into 21 chromosomal pseudomolecules. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled, with a length of 18.01 kilobases. Gene annotation of this assembly by Ensembl identified 18 129 protein-coding genes. The metagenome of the specimen was further assembled, and members of 19 bacterial and archaeal phyla were identified, among them Chloroflexota, Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, and Actinobacteriota, as well as Ca. Tectomicrobia and Ca. Poribacteria. The 145 binned genomes included 69 high-quality MAGs, of which 47 were fully circularised.
Ilan et al. (Sat,) studied this question.