Dryas iulia Genome sequencing. Dryas iulia

With the aim of studying functional and population genomics, over only the last five years, using a diverse variety of sequencing strategies (e.g. long reads, short reads at low and high coverage) a great volume of genomic data is regularly being sequenced for Heliconius butterflies. We aim to put together all available data and new genomic resources that will include new high-quality genomes, improvements to the available genomic data, and annotations of the combined genomic dataset using published and unpublished RNA resources, with a special focus on H. melpomene, in order to generate ortholog annotation tables for 58 Heliconiinii + 5 outgroup genomes. By doing so we show that the availability of a few well-annotated and assembled genomes provides the potential to exponentially make sense of the huge amount of data available. We also compare different sequencing strategies and technologies to show the weakness and strengths of each, and how to make good use of them. We hope this work will provide a powerful resource to explore the biology of the Heliconiini.

本研究旨在开展功能基因组学与群体基因组学研究。仅在过去五年间，研究团队便通过多样化的测序策略（例如长读长测序（long reads）、低覆盖度与高覆盖度短读长测序（short reads）），持续为袖蝶属（Heliconius）蝴蝶生成了海量基因组测序数据。本研究计划整合所有公开可用的数据与全新基因组学资源，涵盖新组装的高质量基因组、现有基因组数据的优化版本，以及利用已发表与未发表的RNA资源对整合后的基因组数据集进行注释；研究将以诗神袖蝶（H. melpomene）为核心关注对象，最终为58个袖蝶族（Heliconiinii）类群及5个外类群（outgroup）基因组构建直系同源基因注释表（ortholog annotation tables）。通过本研究的实施，我们将证实：仅需少量经过高质量组装与注释的参考基因组，即可实现对海量现有测序数据的指数级解析。本研究同时对不同测序策略与技术开展对比分析，阐明各类技术的优劣势特性，并提供其合理应用方案。本研究期望为袖蝶族（Heliconiini）的生物学研究提供一套极具价值的核心资源。