Improved reference genome of the arboviral vector Aedes albopictus

Umberto Palatini (1) , Reem A Masri (2) , Luciano V Cosme (3) , Sergey Koren (4) , Francoise Thibaud-Nissen (5) , James K Biedler (2) , Flavia Krsticevic (6) , J. Spencer Johnston (7) , Rebecca Halbach (8) , Jacob E Crawford (9) , Igor Antoshechkin (10) , Anna-Bella Failloux (11) , Elisa Pischedda (1) , Michele Marconcini (1) , Jay Ghurye (4) , Arang Rhie (4) , Atashi Sharma (2) , Dmitry A Karagodin (12) , Jeremy Jenrette (2) , Stephanie Gamez (13) , Pascal Miesen (8) , Patrick Masterson (5) , Adalgisa Caccone (3) , Maria V Sharakhova (2, 12, 14) , Zhijian Tu (2) , Philippos A Papathanos (6) , Ronald P van Rij (8) , Omar S Akbari (13) , Jeffrey Powell (3) , Adam M Phillippy (15, 4) , Mariangela Bonizzoni (1)

1 DBB UNIPV - Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Lazzaro Spallanzani" = Department of Biology and Biotechnology [Univ di Pavia]
2 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [Blacksburg]
3 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology [New Haven]
4 NHGRI - National Human Genome Research Institute
5 NCBI - National Center for Biotechnology Information
6 HUJ - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
7 Texas A&M University [College Station]
8 Radboud University Medical Center [Nijmegen]
9 Verily Life Sciences Inc
10 CALTECH - California Institute of Technology
11 Arbovirus et Insectes Vecteurs - Arboviruses and Insect Vectors
12 SB RAS - Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
13 UC San Diego - University of California [San Diego]
14 Tomsk State University [Tomsk]
15 National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center [Frederick]

Background: The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus is globally expanding and has become the main vector for human arboviruses in Europe. With limited antiviral drugs and vaccines available, vector control is the primary approach to prevent mosquito-borne diseases. A reliable and accurate DNA sequence of the Ae. albopictus genome is essential to develop new approaches that involve genetic manipulation of mosquitoes. Results: We use long-read sequencing methods and modern scaffolding techniques (PacBio, 10X, and Hi-C) to produce AalbF2, a dramatically improved assembly of the Ae. albopictus genome. AalbF2 reveals widespread viral insertions, novel microRNAs and piRNA clusters, the sex-determining locus, and new immunity genes, and enables genome-wide studies of geographically diverse Ae. albopictus populations and analyses of the developmental and stage-dependent network of expression data. Additionally, we build the first physical map for this species with 75% of the assembled genome anchored to the chromosomes. Conclusion: The AalbF2 genome assembly represents the most up-to-date collective knowledge of the Ae. albopictus genome. These resources represent a foundation to improve understanding of the adaptation potential and the epidemiological relevance of this species and foster the development of innovative control measures.

Keywords: Ae. albopictus; Developmental transcriptome; Genome; Immunity; Population differentiation; Sex locus; Viral integrations; miRNAs; piRNA clusters

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Microbiology and Parasitology; Virology

Umberto Palatini, Reem A Masri, Luciano V Cosme, Sergey Koren, Francoise Thibaud-Nissen, et al.. Improved reference genome of the arboviral vector Aedes albopictus. Genome Biology, 2020, 21 (1), pp.215. ⟨10.1186/s13059-020-02141-w⟩. ⟨pasteur-02932283⟩