De novo transcriptome assembly of the Baikal stone sculpin Paracottus knerii (Dybowski, 1874) from the Angara River as the first transcriptomic resource for Lake Baikal Cottidae

Lake Baikal is the largest freshwater reservoir inhabited by a number of endemic species flocks belonging to different taxa. However, genomic resources for these groups of endemics are still relatively scarce, limiting understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind their physiology. One of these species flocks are Baikal sculpins of the family Cottidae. Here, we present the first transcriptome assembly for this group using stone sculpin Paracottus knerii (Dybowsky, 1874) as a model. The transcriptome was obtained from the whole body of a P. knerii fry and contains a diverse array of immunity-related transcripts, paving the way for studies investigating the immune response of Lake Baikal sculpins.