Genome Resource of Afrina sporoboliae for the Analyses of Gall-Forming Nematodes of the Family Anguinidae

Afrina sporoboliae was described from seed galls of Sporobolus cryptandrus (Poaceae: Chloridoideae: Sporobolinae) in 2018 in Idaho, USA and is the most recent seed gall nematode species described. The whole genome of Afrina sporoboliae was assembled using the PacBIO Sequel system. DNA and RNA were isolated and purified from A. sporoboliae second-stage juveniles (J2) to complete whole genome and RNA sequencing. A total 258.4 Mb in 2,578 polished contigs were obtained with 24,717 protein-coding genes predicted, and 21,716 functionally annotated. BUSCO completeness is 73.5% using the nematode dataset containing 3,131 orthologous groups after annotation. In this study, we report the first genome assembly of A. sporoboliae, a resource that will improve the understanding of this seed gall nematode and provide genetic evidence and insights into the biology and bacterial association of seed gall nematodes.