ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e155085
ERGA-BGE Reference Genome of the Western Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus), a Key Species for Evolutionary and Venom Studies
Salvador Carranza‡, Daniel Fernández-Guiberteau§, Laura Blasón§, Javier Palma-Guerrero‡, Rosa Fernández|, Rita Monteiro¶, Astrid Böhne¶, Laura Aguilera#¤, Marta Gut#«, Francisco Câmara Ferreira#«, Fernando Cruz#«, Jèssica Gómez-Garrido#«, Tyler Alioto#«, Leanne Haggerty», Swati Sinha», Fergal Martin», Diego De Panis˄˅‡ Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain§ CREAC, Centre de Recerca i Educació Ambiental de Calafell (GRENP-Ajuntament de Calafell), C/ Dinamarca 8, 43882, Segur de Calafell, Tarragona, Spain| Institute of Evolutionary Biology (CSIC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain¶ Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Museum Koenig Bonn, Adenauerallee 127, 53113, Bonn, Germany# Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), C/Baldiri Reixac, 4, 08028, Barcelona, Spain¤ Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain« Universitat de Barcelona (UB), 08028, Barcelona, Spain» European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom˄ Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Str 17, 10315, Berlin, Germany˅ Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research (BeGenDiv), Königin-Luise-Str 6-8, 14195, Berlin, Germany
Corresponding author: Diego De Panis ( panis@izw-berlin.de ) © Salvador Carranza, Daniel Fernández-Guiberteau, Laura Blasón, Javier Palma-Guerrero, Rosa Fernández, Rita Monteiro, Astrid Böhne, Laura Aguilera, Marta Gut, Francisco Câmara Ferreira, Fernando Cruz, Jèssica Gómez-Garrido, Tyler Alioto, Leanne Haggerty, Swati Sinha, Fergal Martin, Diego De Panis. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Carranza S, Fernández-Guiberteau D, Blasón L, Palma-Guerrero J, Fernández R, Monteiro R, Böhne A, Aguilera L, Gut M, Câmara Ferreira F, Cruz F, Gómez-Garrido J, Alioto T, Haggerty L, Sinha S, Martin F, De Panis D (2025) ERGA-BGE Reference Genome of the Western Montpellier Snake (Malpolon monspessulanus), a Key Species for Evolutionary and Venom Studies. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e155085 |  |
Abstract
Malpolon monspessulanus is a large, rear-fanged snake widely distributed across Mediterranean habitats, where it plays an essential ecological role by controlling populations of small vertebrates. The reference genome of this species offers a crucial resource for uncovering the genomic foundations underlying venom evolution in rear-fanged snakes. A total of 23 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules (21 autosomes and two sex chromosomes) were assembled from the genome sequence. This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 1.8 Gb, composed of 140 contigs and 60 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 32.7 Mb and 121.9 Mb, respectively.
Keywords
Malpolon monspessulanus, genome assembly, genome annotation, European Reference Genome Atlas, Biodiversity Genomics Europe, Earth Biogenome Project, Psammophiidae, Western Montpellier snake