TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hartke, Juliane
A1  - Schell, Tilman
A1  - Jongepier, Evelien
A1  - Schmidt, Hanno
A1  - Sprenger, Philipp P.
A1  - Paule, Juraj
A1  - Bornberg-Bauer, Erich
A1  - Schmitt, Thomas
A1  - Menzel, Florian
A1  - Pfenninger, Markus
A1  - Feldmeyer, Barbara
T1  - Hybrid genome assembly of a neotropical mutualistic ant
T2  - Genome biology and evolution
N2  - The success of social insects is largely intertwined with their highly advanced chemical communication system that facilitates recognition and discrimination of species and nest-mates, recruitment, and division of labor. Hydrocarbons, which cover the cuticle of insects, not only serve as waterproofing agents but also constitute a major component of this communication system. Two cryptic Crematogaster species, which share their nest with Camponotus ants, show striking diversity in their cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profile. This mutualistic system therefore offers a great opportunity to study the genetic basis of CHC divergence between sister species. As a basis for further genome-wide studies high-quality genomes are needed. Here, we present the annotated draft genome for Crematogaster levior A. By combining the three most commonly used sequencing techniques—Illumina, PacBio, and Oxford Nanopore—we constructed a high-quality de novo ant genome. We show that even low coverage of long reads can add significantly to overall genome contiguity. Annotation of desaturase and elongase genes, which play a role in CHC biosynthesis revealed one of the largest repertoires in ants and a higher number of desaturases in general than in other Hymenoptera. This may provide a mechanistic explanation for the high diversity observed in C. levior CHC profiles.
KW  - cuticular hydrocarbons
KW  - assembly
KW  - MinION
KW  - formicine
KW  - elongase
KW  - desaturase
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51498
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-514984
SN  - 1759-6653
N1  - This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
VL  - 11
IS  - 8
SP  - 2306
EP  - 2311
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -