Genomic and transcriptomic resources for assassin flies including the complete genome sequence ofProctacanthus coquilletti(Insecta: Diptera: Asilidae) and 16 representative transcriptomes.
A high-quality draft genome forProctacanthus coquilletti(Insecta: Diptera: Asilidae) is presented along with transcriptomes for 16 Diptera species from five families: Asilidae, Apioceridae, Bombyliidae, Mydidae, and Tabanidae. Genome sequencing reveals thatP. coquillettihas a genome size of approximately 210 Mbp and remarkably low heterozygosity (0.47%) and few repeats (15%). These characteristics helped produce a highly contiguous (N50 = 862 kbp) assembly, particularly given that only a single 2 × 250 bp PCR-free Illumina library was sequenced. A phylogenomic hypothesis is presented based on thousands of putative orthologs across the 16 transcriptomes. Phylogenetic relationships support the sister group relationship of Apioceridae + Mydidae to Asilidae. A time-calibrated phylogeny is also presented, with seven fossil calibration points, which suggests an older age of the split among Apioceridae, Asilidae, and Mydidae (158 mya) and Apioceridae and Mydidae (135 mya) than proposed in the AToL FlyTree project. Future studies will be able to take advantage of the resources presented here in order to produce large scale phylogenomic and evolutionary studies of assassin fly phylogeny, life histories, or venom. The bioinformatics tools and workflow presented here will be useful to others wishing to generatede novogenomic resources in species-rich taxa without a closely-related reference genome.
Office of Research Information Services, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Smithsonian Institution , Washington , D.C. , United States of America.
Rebecca B
RB
Dikow
Office of Research Information Services, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Smithsonian Institution , Washington , D.C. , United States of America.
Paul B
PB
Frandsen
Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution , Washington , D.C. , United States of America.
Mauren
M
Turcatel
Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution , Washington , D.C. , United States of America.
Torsten
T
Dikow
Asilidae; Draft genome; Genomics; Phylogenomics; Transcriptomics