Chromosome-level genome assembly and annotation of the moon jellyfish Aurelia coerulea

Abstract Aurelia coerulea (moon jellyfish), a radially symmetrical metazoan in the phylum Cnidaria, possesses key features pertinent to understanding the evolutionary origins of nervous systems. Here, we employed a combination of long-read sequencing, short-read sequencing, and Hi-C chromatin conformation capture techniques to generate a chromosome-level assembly of the A. coerulea genome. The final assembly comprises approximately 554.10 Mb distributed across 21 chromosomes, achieving a scaffold N50 of 24.06 Mb and demonstrating high completeness (protein BUSCO score: 93.0%). Approximately 71.48% of the genome consists of transposable elements. We identified 26,777 protein-coding genes, of which approximately 72.28% have been functionally annotated. This chromosome-level genome provides an essential resource for elucidating early neural evolution and advancing our understanding of cnidarian biology.