Chromosome-level genomes of hard clams Meretrix lamarckii (Deshayes, 1853) and Meretrix meretrix (Linnaeus, 1758)

The genus Meretrix contains marine bivalve molluscs commonly known as the Venus clams or hard clams, which can be found in the estuarine and marine habitats in Asia. Given their edibility, they have been exploited in clam digging activities and also been farmed in some places. Here, we provide two new high-quality genomes of species M. meretrix and M. lamarckii. Utilising a combination of PacBio HiFi and Omni-C sequencing technologies, genome assemblies of M. meretrix and M. lamarcki are obtained with sizes 835.1 Mb (scaffold N50 = 46 Mb) and 890.5 Mb (scaffold N50 = 46 Mb), respectively. More than 99% of sequences were anchored to 19 pseudochromosomes, and high completeness was also obtained estimated by BUSCO scores (~99.5%, mollusca_odb12). The two new genomic resources provided in this study will be useful for further understanding biology, ecology, and evolution of edible clams.