{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T05:10:48Z","timestamp":1772169048776,"version":"3.50.1"},"update-to":[{"DOI":"10.12688\/openreseurope.21672.1","type":"new_version","label":"New version","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770681600000}}],"reference-count":49,"publisher":"F1000 Research Ltd","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1770681600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Open Res Europe"],"abstract":"<ns3:p>\n                    <ns3:italic>Hirudo verbana<\/ns3:italic>\n                    Carena, 1820, commonly known as the southern medicinal leech, is one of several European medicinal leeches, whose full diversity has just recently started to be uncovered. Historically, it has been widely used as a medicinal leech and for centuries it was treated erroneously under the specific name of\n                    <ns3:italic>Hirudo medicinalis<\/ns3:italic>\n                    L. 1758. Recent molecular and taxonomic analyses have revealed subspecific diversity within the morphospecies\n                    <ns3:italic>H. verbana<\/ns3:italic>\n                    .\n                    <ns3:italic>Hirudo verbana<\/ns3:italic>\n                    is a blood-feeding species sucking blood from amphibians, fish, and mammals. It occupies freshwater habitats, typically shallow ponds and lakes. Studies show that this leech species has a \"naturally limited microbiome\", suggesting it may serve as a powerful model system for the study of gut microbiota. We expect this chromosome-level assembly of\n                    <ns3:italic>H. verbana<\/ns3:italic>\n                    to serve as a high-quality genomic resource for this most famous leech genus and to serve as a foundation to the study of the diversification and biodiversity of European medicinal leeches, as well as their gut-associated symbionts. The genome of\n                    <ns3:italic>H. verbana<\/ns3:italic>\n                    was assembled into two haplotypes through a phased assembly approach; however, only the primary haplotype was designated as the reference genome for annotation and downstream analyses. The entirety of the primary haplotype was assembled into 14 contiguous chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the mitogenome. This chromosome-level assembly encompasses 0.18 Gb, composed of 277 contigs and 27 scaffolds, with contig and scaffold N50 values of 1.3 Mb and 13.4 Mb, respectively.\n                  <\/ns3:p>","DOI":"10.12688\/openreseurope.21672.2","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T10:44:09Z","timestamp":1770720249000},"page":"395","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12688\/openreseurope.crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["ERGA-BGE reference genome of Hirudo verbana, a once neglected freshwater haematophagous European medicinal leech"],"prefix":"10.12688","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0707-9052","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alejandro","family":"Manzano-Mar\u00edn","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1284-3115","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Astrid","family":"B\u00f6hne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1374-4474","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rita","family":"Monteiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1960-9508","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thomas","family":"Marcussen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3280-6239","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Torsten H.","family":"Struck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2094-5592","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rebekah A.","family":"Oomen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"name":"Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Management, Samples and Laboratory Team","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"name":"Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: Sequencing Operations","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"name":"Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Core Informatics Team","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Caroline","family":"Howard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Kerstin","family":"Howe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Mark","family":"Blaxter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Shane","family":"McCarthy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Jonathan M.D.","family":"Wood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Fergal","family":"Martin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9533-1675","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Lazar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8843-3596","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leanne","family":"Haggerty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6589-6635","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chiara","family":"Bortoluzzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"2560","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/database\/baw093","article-title":"The Ensembl gene annotation system.","volume":"2016","author":"B Aken","year":"2016","journal-title":"Database 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status","group":{"name":"current-referee-status","label":"Current Referee Status"}},{"value":"10.21956\/openreseurope.23444.r66970, Naim Saglam, Firat University, Elaz\u0131\u011f, 12 Jan 2026, version 1, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu\/articles\/5-395\/v1#referee-response-66970","order":0,"name":"referee-response-66970","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Chiara Bortoluzzi<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 20 Jan 2026<\/i>; We thank the reviewer for their positive feedback and additional comments. All comments have been addressed in the new revised manuscript as follow:&nbsp; 1.&nbsp;The difference in genome size between what reported in the abstract and what reported in the \u2018Genetic information\u2019 section is due to the fact the while the first value (0.18) is the actual size of the sequenced genome, the second value (0.22) is an estimate obtained from ancestral taxa. This estimate is used prior to sequencing to help calculate sequencing effort (e.g. library prep reagents and number of Revio flow cells) and it is known that the value might not be exact, but it is an educated guess. The assumption that a species might have its genome size within the range described for its taxonomic group is the basis for GoaT estimates: the median of genome sizes are computed from taxa with direct measurements and propagated to the closest common ancestor, then back to fill the missing data. More information on how GoaT calculates ancestral values to propagate can be found in https:\/\/wellcomeopenresearch.org\/articles\/8-24\/v1. K-mer genome sizes are part of our pipelines and are used routinely to assess the need for top-up sequencing during the process of producing a genome. The final assessment of a sequence-based genome size is its assembly span, which, together with K-mer inferred genome size measurements, are not the definitive amount of DNA in cells, but a reference to the size of chromosome assemblies. We reformulated this part to make it more clear.&nbsp; 2.&nbsp;We now provide the general GPS coordinates in the main text. However, the exact GPS coordinates were omitted in order to protect the collection site from exploitation, as this is a problem when reporting collection sites for European medicinal leeches. 3. There are currently only two Hirudo species currently listed in CITES Appendix II: Hirudo medicinalis, and Hirudo verbana. Sometimes Hirudo spp. are treated as a whole by CITES agents as they cannot generally assess the specific species affiliation. The appendix II, as it relates to these two species, does not relate to the collection of the species in the wild, but rather it controls its trade, \u201cAppendix II lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled. It also includes so-called &quot;look-alike species&quot;, i.e. species whose specimens in trade look like those of species listed for conservation reasons (see Article II, paragraph 2 of the Convention). International trade in specimens of Appendix-II species may be authorized by the granting of an export permit or re-export certificate. No import permit is necessary for these species under CITES (although a permit is needed in some countries that have taken stricter measures than CITES requires). Permits or certificates should only be granted if the relevant authorities are satisfied that certain conditions are met, above all that trade will not be detrimental to the survival of the species in the wild. (See Article IV of the Convention)\u201d (https:\/\/cites.org\/eng\/app\/index.php). And \u201c2. Appendix II shall include: (a) all species which although not necessarily now threatened with extinction may become so unless trade in specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival; and (b) other species which must be subject to regulation in order that trade in specimens of certain species referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph may be brought under effective control. \u201d (https:\/\/cites.org\/eng\/disc\/text.php#II). Therefore, its collection is not controlled, but rather its trade, establishing quotas per country (https:\/\/www.speciesplus.net\/species#\/taxon_concepts\/6167\/legal). See also Commission Reg. (EU) 2023\/966 of 15 May 2023 (https:\/\/eur-lex.europa.eu\/legal-content\/EN\/TXT\/PDF\/?uri=CELEX:32023R0966).&nbsp; In fact, Hirudo verbana is included as it is considered a &quot;look-alike species&quot; to its congener H. medicinalis. In Austria, no specific regulations control its collection, as this was also not done in any recognised natural reserve and species is not recognised as one protected from its collection.&nbsp; Thus, permits were only required for its shipping from Austria and into the UK. These CITES permits were granted with numbers AT-23\u20130027 (Austria, export) and 24GBIMPD10R7G (UK, import).&nbsp; We added a few sentences about this in the main text in the section \u2018Sample and sampling information\u2019. 4. the bacterial MAGs reported were done so in the interest of reporting this finding, and given previous reports of the presence of some of these taxa as members of the microbiome of H. verbana. However, these have not been further analysed, as they were not the focus of this genome data report and are being currently fully analysed for a separate work focusing on the genomics, diversity, metabolic potential, and evolution of these entities. 5. We are aware that the article lacks a discussion section, but this is due to the fact that this is a Data Note, whose scope is to present data, in our case the genome assembly of Hirudo verbena. Unfortunately, we cannot add such a section due to a constraint in the article format.","URL":"https:\/\/open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu\/articles\/5-395\/v2#referee-comment-5018","order":1,"name":"referee-comment-5018","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"10.21956\/openreseurope.23444.r67473, Christian Mueller, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, 20 Jan 2026, version 1, indexed","URL":"https:\/\/open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu\/articles\/5-395\/v1#referee-response-67473","order":2,"name":"referee-response-67473","label":"Referee Report","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"<b>Chiara Bortoluzzi<\/b>; \n<i>Posted: 20 Jan 2026<\/i>; We thank the reviewer for their positive feedback and comments. All comments are addressed in the revised manuscript as follow:&nbsp; &nbsp; 1.&nbsp; You are absolutely right. Slovakia and Romania have been added to the list of countries and references are now added in the main text.&nbsp; \u201cThe species has reliably been found in Switzerland, Austria,Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, and Uzbekistan (Arias et al., 2021; Utevsky et al., 2010; Cs&eacute;falvay et al. 2017; Popa et al. 2024)\u201d On the other hand, the &quot;reliable&quot; descriptions of H. verbana in Germany are very likely artifacts and the result of accidental or intended releases of leeches to the wild, but the species does not belong to the natural fauna of Germany. The presence of stable reproductive populations of H. verbana in Germany is hence highly questionable. With the term \u2018reliable\u2019, we wanted to convey rather the message of bona fide descriptions of H. verbana (taxonomically speaking), and did not intend to imply that there are in fact \u201creproductive populations\u201d of H. verbana there. For example, even in Austria, H. medicinalis is what one would expect, but the sequenced population can reliably be traced to an artificial historical introduction that has developed into a very isolated stable reproductive population. We have however decided to remove Germany from the list, as we recognise the statement could in fact be read as such. 2. You are right. In its original text, we thought more of the highlight of the use of these genomes to identify putative novel anticoagulants (the focus of Kvist et. al 2020). Babenko et al. 2020 rather focused on draft transcriptomes to extract this information. This is why we originally omitted the citation. We have nevertheless added it now. We are aware of the previous draft genome pre-print of a specimen identified as H. verbana. We did not include this citation as we do not delve into previous genomic investigations of H. verbana. We have thus added a small mention to it. 3. We added a photograph of H. verbana. 4. We did not perform any further analyses on the identification of putative anticoagulants, as this paper is thought of as a genome report to make the reference genome and associated resources avaiable to the broader community. Thus, such analysis would go beyond the scope of this report. Other researchers interested in this area are welcome to use this genomic resource for this purpose.","URL":"https:\/\/open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu\/articles\/5-395\/v2#referee-comment-5019","order":3,"name":"referee-comment-5019","label":"Referee Comment","group":{"name":"article-reports","label":"Article Reports"}},{"value":"Biodiversity Genomics Europe (Grant no. 101059492) is funded by Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment call (REA.B.3); co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract numbers 22.00173 and 24.00054; and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy\u2019s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme. A.M.-M. has received funding from European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. [840270] (LEECHSYMBIO). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.","order":4,"name":"grant-information","label":"Grant Information"},{"value":"This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.","order":0,"name":"copyright-info","label":"Copyright"}]}}