Integrating genomic resources of flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) to boost aquaculture production

Flatfish have a high market acceptance thus representing a profitable aquaculture production. The main farmed species is the turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) followed by Japanese flounder (Paralichthys olivaceous) and tongue sole (Cynoglossus semilaevis), but other species like Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis) and common sole (Solea solea) also register an important production and are very promising for farming. Important genomic resources are available for most of these species including whole genome sequencing projects, genetic maps and transcriptomes. In this work, we integrate all available genomic information of these species within a common framework, taking as reference the whole assembled genomes of turbot and tongue sole (> 210x coverage). New insights related to the genetic basis of productive traits and new data useful to understand the evolutionary origin and diversification of this group were obtained. Despite a general 1:1 chromosome syntenic relationship between species, the comparison of turbot and tongue sole genomes showed huge intrachromosomic reorganizations. The integration of available mapping information supported specific chromosome fusions along flatfish evolution and facilitated the comparison between species of previously reported genetic associations for productive traits. When comparing transcriptomic resources of the six species, a common set of ~ 2,500 othologues and ~ 150 common miRNAs were identified, and specific sets of putative missing genes were detected in flatfish transcriptomes, likely reflecting their evolutionary diversification.