Genome assembly of the ragweed leaf beetle, a step forward to better predict rapid evolution of a weed biocontrol agent to environmental novelties

Rapid evolution of weed biological control agents (BCAs) to new biotic and abiotic conditions is poorly understood and so far, only little considered both in pre-release and post-release studies, despite potential major negative or positive implications for risks of non-targeted attacks or for colonizing yet unsuitable habitats, respectively. Provision of genetic resources, such as assembled and annotated genomes, is essential to assess potential adaptive processes by identifying underlying genetic mechanisms. Here, we provide the first sequenced genome of a phytophagous insect used as a BCA, i.e. the leaf beetle Ophraella communa, a promising BCA of common ragweed, recently and accidentally introduced into Europe. A total 33.98 Gb of raw DNA sequences, representing c. 43-fold coverage, were obtained using the PacBio SMRT-Cell sequencing approach. Among the five different assemblers tested, the SMARTdenovo assembly displaying the best scores was then corrected with Illumina short reads....