# The genome of the reef-building coral Porites harrisoni from the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf

## TL;DR

This paper presents the genome of a coral species from a very hot region, which helps understand how corals survive extreme heat.

## Contribution

The study provides a high-quality genome assembly of Porites harrisoni from the Persian/Arabian Gulf, a region with extreme thermal conditions.

## Key findings

- The genome assembly is 626.7 Mb in size with a BUSCO completeness of 86.3%.
- The nuclear genome contains 27,823 protein-coding genes and a high proportion of repeats.
- The mitochondrial genome is a single contig of 18,639 bp with typical coral mitogenome features.

## Abstract

We present a genome assembly from the coral species Porites harrisoni from the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf, the hottest ocean basin where corals live. The assembly is 626.7 Mb in size, spanning 1,883 contigs with a contig N50 of 807.4 kb, including a single-contig mitochondrial genome. The assembly has a BUSCO completeness of 86.3% (single = 72.5%, duplicated = 13.7%, fragmented = 1.2%, missing = 12.5%). Within the nuclear genome, 59.23% are repeats (15.89% retroelements, 10.00% DNA transposons, and 31.71% unclassified repeats). Gene annotation of the nuclear genome assembly identified 27,823 protein-coding genes. The mitogenome is 18,639 bp long, with 13 protein-coding genes, 2 tRNAs, and 2 rRNAs. The P. harrisoni genome is a valuable resource of a coral from an extreme environment, enhancing understanding of the genomic architecture underlying thermal resilience. Comparative analyses will help elucidate the evolutionary basis of heat tolerance and the adaptive capacity of coral to rapid climate change.