GENOME ANNOUNCEMENT
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*Vibrio vulnificus* is a bacterial pathogen that inhabits brackish waters worldwide. * V. vulnificus* strains are divided into three biotypes based on their biochemical characteristics.  Biotype 1 is the most abundant and is the primary cause of human disease worldwide ([@B1]).  Biotype 2 primarily affects fish and is considered to be the etiological pathogen of fish vibriosis (hemorrhagic septicemia) ([@B2]).  Biotype 3 has been described only in Israel and affects humans only ([@B3]).  Biotype 2 strains are subdivided into at least three different O-antigenic serovars (A, E, and I) ([@B4], [@B5]), serovar E being the one associated with human vibriosis ([@B6]).  It has been suggested that biotype 2 virulence to fish is mediated by a 68-kb plasmid ([@B7], [@B8]). 

Here, we describe the draft genome of strain ES-7601 (reference bacterial strain ATCC 33147/CECT 897/ NCIMB 2136), a *V. vulnificus* biotype 2 (serovar E), isolated from an infected eel in Japan in 1979.  A total of 74 ng/µL genomic DNA was extracted using a commercial kit (Qiagen DNeasy kit).  Adaptors were added to each library during preparation according to the TruSeq protocol (Illumina) to produce multiplexed paired-end libraries.  The sample was run on a sequencer (Illumina MiSeq) at the Technion Genome Center, Haifa, Israel, generating 6,714,846 paired-end-reads.  Sequence read data were mapped to 2 reference genomes (CMCP6 and YJ016) with an average coverage of 250×. The genome was *de novo* assembled with SPAdes ([@B9]) and RAST (Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology) ([@B10]) was used for gene annotation. 

The assembled genome consisted of 281 contigs totaling 5,066,572 bp in length, the largest of which was 254,323 bp with an *N*~50~ length of 68,299 bp.  A total of 4,411 coding sequences were identified with 172 pseudogenes, 9 rRNAs, 99 tRNAs, and 1 non-coding RNA (ncRNA).  A BLAST analysis was performed to identify sequences in the draft genome sharing sequence similarity to the plasmids that have been described in *V. vulnificus* biotype 2.  The genome sequence of strain ES-7601 showed ≥98% nucleotide sequence similarity to *V. vulnificus* plasmid pC4602-1 (56 kb). 

Nucleotide sequence accession numbers. {# h1}
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This whole-genome shotgun project has been deposited at DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank under the accession no. [ JRQR00000000](JRQR00000000).  The version described in this paper is version JRQR01000000. 

**Citation** Koton Y, Eghbaria S, Gordon M, Chalifa-Caspi V, Bisharat N. 2014.  Draft genome sequence of fish pathogenic *Vibrio vulnificus* biotype 2.  Genome Announc.  2(6):e01224-14.  doi:10.1128/genomeA.01224-14. 

We thank Noa Henig and Tal Katz-Ezov, from the Technion Genome Center, for library preparation and whole-genome sequencing. 

This work was funded by grant 2010-3 from the Legacy Heritage Fund.