Genome assembly and annotation of the king ratsnake, Elaphe carinata

Abstract

The king ratsnake (Elaphe carinata) of the genus Elaphe is a common large, non-venomous snake widely distributed in Southeast and East Asia. It is an economically important farmed species. As a non-venomous snake, the king ratsnake predates venomous snakes, such as cobras and pit vipers. However, the immune and digestive mechanisms of the king ratsnake remain unclear. Despite their economic and research importance, we lack genomic resources that would benefit toxicology, phylogeography, and immunogenetics studies. Here, we used single-tube long fragment read sequencing to generate the first contiguous genome of a king ratsnake from Huangshan City, Anhui province, China. The genome size is 1.56 GB with a scaffold N50 of 6.53M. The total length of the genome is approximately 621 Mb, while the repeat content is 42.26%. Additionally, we predicted 22,339 protein-coding genes, including 22,065 with functional annotations. Our genome is a potentially useful addition to those available for snakes.