Draft assembly and annotation of the Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) genome

The new data provide an important genomic resource for the Critically Endangered Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer). Cuban crocodiles are restricted to the Zapata Swamp in southern Matanzas Province, Cuba, and readily hybridize with the widespread American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) in areas of sympatry. The reported de novo assembly will contribute to studies of crocodylian evolutionary history and provide a resource for informing Cuban crocodile conservation.

The final 2.2 Gb draft genome for C. rhombifer consists of 41,387 scaffolds (contigs: N50 = 104.67 Kb; scaffold: N50-518.55 Kb). Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) identified 92.3% of the 3,354 genes in the vertebrata_odb10 database. Approximately 42% of the genome (960Mbp) comprises repeat elements. We predicted 30,138 unique protein-coding sequences (17,737 unique genes) in the genome assembly. Functional annotation found the top Gene Ontology annotations for Biological Processes, Molecular Function, and Cellular Component were regulation, protein, and intracellular, respectively. This assembly will support future macroevolutionary, conservation, and molecular studies of the Cuban crocodile.