Science and Technology Daily correspondent Zhao Ruoping reporter Zhao Hanbin
Butterfly family is a butterfly branch with an important evolutionary status, and because of its rich diversity of colors and forms, it is a popular topic in insect ecology and evolutionary research. The reporter learned from the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the 19th that the Evolutionary Genomics and Gene Origin Research Group of the Institute recently released the Chinese Bifeng Butterfly chromosome-level genome. According to the evolutionary trees constructed, this beautiful species originated about 50 million years ago.
Research Group Diagram of Evolutionary Genomics and Gene Origin, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Because of its rich morphological diversity, butterflies have been one of the important taxa for studying the adaptive evolution of species since the Time of Darwin, and in recent years, it has been considered an ideal model for studying morphological inheritance, evolution and development, and has become one of the important model organisms in the fields of developmental biology, evolutionary biology, population genetics, conservation biology and ecology.
Associate researcher Li Xueyan introduced that the research team had completed the genomes of all butterfly model species Golden Phoenix butterfly and its close relative species Citrus Butterfly in 2015, and conducted genomic research on Butterfly widely distributed in East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia and of great significance for body color evolution and species differentiation. Using three generations of long-reading long sequencing technology, combined with high-throughput chromosome conformation capture technology, they successfully assembled the genome at the level of the chromosomes of the butterfly, with a total of 29 autosomal and 1 sex chromosome. It is also the first chromosome-level butterfly genome to be completed using high-throughput chromosome conformation capture technology, with a total length of about 421.52 Mb. The results of the genome annotation show that this is the genome with the highest repetitive sequence of all published butterfly genomes, with a total of 15375 protein-coding genes annotated.
The researchers' evolutionary trees, using 4D loci and orthologous genes, also suggest that the genus originated between 39 million and 57 million years ago, and that it diverged from citrus butterflies and golden butterflies between about 20 million and 30 million years. An analysis of the historical population dynamics of the butterfly shows that the population has increased from the most recent interglacial period until the last glacial period, which is consistent with previous studies of other insects.
The reference genome at the chromosome level of the butterfly not only lays the foundation for the study of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of the special biological characteristics of the butterfly, but also provides the basic information for the development of butterfly resources and biodiversity conservation. The study was published in BGI's journal GigaScience, titled "Chinese Butterfly Chromosome-Level Reference Genome Based on Third-Generation DNA Sequencing and Hi-C Analysis.".