A chromosome-level draft genome of the grain aphid Sitobion miscanthi was successfully assembled
The grain aphid, Sitobion miscanthi, a cereal specialist, is a globally distributed sap-sucking pest of wheat, and a dominant species in wheat-growing regions across China. It threatens wheat production by sucking nutrition from the host plant, transmitting BYDV virus, and defecating sticky honeydew that further obstructs photosynthesis and reduces wheat product quality. Together with its highly specialized host scope, pleomorphism, and alternation of complete and incomplete life cycles make S. miscanthi, an ideal model insect for both basic and applied research. However, no genome information for this aphid is available. This species was previously misidentified as Sitobion avenae and is now widely reported in China.
Recently, a research group led by Prof. Chen Julian at the Department of Agricultural Entomology of IPP-CAAS successfully assembled the genome of S. miscanthi. The results were published in the paper titled “A chromosome-level draft genome of the grain aphid Sitobion miscanthi” in Gigascience. Long-read sequencing and Hi-C data were used to generate chromosome-length scaffolds and a highly contiguous genome assembly to a female aphid colony (Langfang-1). The final draft genome assembly from 33.88 Gb of raw data was approximately 397.90 Mb with a 2.05 Mb contig N50. Most of the sequences assembled into 9 scaffolds (~377.19 Mb) which supported a 2n=18 karyotype for S. miscanthi, based on Hi-C data with a 36.26 Mb scaffold N50. The identified repeat sequences accounted for 26.41% of the genome, and 16,006 protein-coding genes were annotated. According to the phylogenetic analysis among 14 insect species, S. miscanthi is closely related to pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and both aphid species diverging from one ancestor between 76.9 and 88.3 million years ago.
This research was funded by National Key R & D Program of China (Nos. 2017YFD0200900, 2016YFD0300700, 2017YFD0201700) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31871966, 31871979).
More details are available on the links bellow:
Abstract:
https://academic.oup.com/gigascience/article-abstract/doi/10.1093/gigascience/giz101/5552228
By Fan Jia (jfan@ippcaas.cn)
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