De novo genome assembly of the saw-scaled viperEchis carinatus, a medically important venomous snake in the Indian Subcontinent

Abstract

ABSTRACTEchis carinatusis a widely distributed venomous snake in the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the “Big Four” snake species responsible for mortality and severe health complications caused by envenomations. Given the significance of the species for human health, we set out to assemble the whole genome ofE. carinatus. Using only long reads for assembly and short reads for correction, we achieved a highly contiguous 1.57Gb assembly, with a contig N50 of 17.1 Mb and scaffold N50 of 23.4 Mb. We could map 96.58% of our reads back to the assembled genome, and Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) score of 97.4%, indicate near completeness. 48.59% of the genome was repeat-masked using a combination of de novo and annotated repeat databases. The predominant types of repeats include retrotransposons (LINEs, SINEs and LTR elements), DNA transposons and satellite DNA (SSRs). Our work would serve as a resource to understand the role of genes responsible for venom related adaptations, and to design and develop better antivenom formulations.