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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.02.26.708201

The genome of the reef-building coral Porites harrisoni from the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf

Fiesinger, A.·Sharaf, A.·Alderdice, R.·Perna, G.·Manns, H.·Burt, J. A.·Voolstra, C. R.
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Abstract

We present a genome assembly from the coral species Porites harrisoni from the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf, the hottest ocean basin where corals live. The assembly is 626.7 Mb in size, spanning 1,883 contigs with a contig N50 of 807.4 kb, including a single-contig mitochondrial genome. The assembly has a BUSCO completeness of 86.3% (single = 72.5%, duplicated = 13.7%, fragmented = 1.2%, missing = 12.5%) using the eukaryota_odb10 reference set (n = 255). A total of 59.23% of the nuclear genome consists of repeats, comprising 15.89% retroelements, 10.00% DNA transposons, and 31.71% unclassified repeats. Gene annotation of this nuclear genome assembly identified 27,823 protein-coding genes. The mitogenome has an assembly size of 18,639 bp with 13 protein-coding genes as well as 2 tRNAs and 2 rRNAs. The genome of P. harrisoni provides a valuable genomic resource of a coral from an extreme environment, which will enable comparative analyses, enhancing our understanding of the genomic architecture underlying thermal resilience. Such comparisons will contribute to elucidating the evolutionary basis of heat tolerance and adaptive capacity of corals in the context of rapid climate change.

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Fiesinger, A., Sharaf, A., Alderdice, R., Perna, G., Manns, H., Burt, J. A., Voolstra, C. R.. 2026-02-27. The genome of the reef-building coral Porites harrisoni from the southern Persian/Arabian Gulf. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.02.26.708201

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