De novo transcriptome sequencing of an estuarine amphipod Grandidierella japonica exposed to zinc

Despite the ecological and ecotoxicological importance of the amphipod Grandidierella japonica, there is little molecular information on this species. We performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of G. japonica under zinc exposure to develop toxicant responsive transcriptome resources. Using the Ion Torrent platform we obtained 11 million raw reads, which were assembled into 105,166 transcripts (N50: 511 bases). The obtained sequences include many stress- and defence-related genes such as antioxidant genes and members of the cytochrome P450 family as well as potential reference genes. Our transcriptome data of G. japonica should be a useful reference for future ecological and ecotoxicological studies.