A hybrid de novo genome assembly of the digger wasp Cerceris sabulosa (Hymenoptera, Crabronidae)

2025/06/19 by Xiaoli Li, Ye Xiao, Qing‐Song Zhou +2 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Insect-Plant Interactions and Control #Plant and animal studies

paper · doi:10.1093/jhered/esaf041

openalex publication_date 2025/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/06/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/23

Abstract

The digger wasp genus Cerceris represents an important transition from predacious hymenopterans to the bees. Here, we present a refined genome assembly of Cerceris sabulosa. A drone specimen was sequenced using the Oxford Nanopore platform and polished by Illumina paired-end reads. The assembled genome size was 372.7 Mb, including 587 contigs (N50 = 6.6 Mb), with 99.4% of BUSCO genes present in the assembly. A total of 12,425 protein-coding genes were annotated. In addition, 140.3 Mb of repeat elements and 938 noncoding RNAs were identified. Genome evolution analysis showed that many genes related to binding had experienced significant expansion. Our new genome assembly builds the foundation for in-depth research on evolutionary adaptation and lifestyle transition in Cerceris species.

Citations

• The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools
• IQ-TREE: A Fast and Effective Stochastic Algorithm for Estimating Maximum-Likelihood Phylogenies
• Evolutionary History of the Hymenoptera
• BlobToolKit – Interactive Quality Assessment of Genome Assemblies
• BRAKER2: automatic eukaryotic genome annotation with GeneMark-EP+ and AUGUSTUS supported by a protein database
• tRNAscan-SE 2.0: improved detection and functional classification of transfer RNA genes
• TBtools-II: A “one for all, all for one” bioinformatics platform for biological big-data mining

Discussions

• This transition is a key step in understanding hymenopteran evolution! (Photo from the authors) Paper: doi.org/10.1093/jher... Corresponding author: www.zhouxinlab.com/ [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]