Whole genome shotgun phylogenomics resolves the pattern and timing of swallowtail butterfly evolution

We study an iconic group of butterflies - swallowtails of the family Papilionidae - that has remained phylogenetically unresolved, with continued debate about the timing of their diversification. Low-coverage whole genomes were obtained using Illumina shotgun sequencing for all genera. Genome assembly coupled to BLAST-based orthology searches allowed extraction of 6,621 orthologous protein-coding genes for 45 Papilionidae species and 16 outgroup species (with 32% missing data after cleaning phases).