Preliminary AWCP genomic datasets used for methodological refinement and exploration of whitefly genomic content.

Arthropod genome assembly projects are uniquely challenged, as the animals are often very small and their genomes often highly heterozygous. In the beginning of this work, short-read sequencing technologies were investigated for their utility in the genome sequencing of populations of the African cassava whitefly, Bemisia tabaci. Methods for sample preparation were finely tuned during this period, however the resulting assemblies of these data were unsatisfactory. Assemblies were highly fragmented, due most likely to high levels of heterozygosity. Long-read sequencing technology was then employed, which gave far superior results. The short-read sequencing datasets that were produced in the project, but were not used in the final genome assemblies, are presented here.