de novo genome assembly of 5 Heliconius spp. with PacBio Revio long-read data

Long-read de novo genome assembly is becoming increasingly common in the world of genetics, yet high-quality reference genomes for early genetic models are often not prioritized or publicly available. This project seeks to produce high-quality reference genomes for five members of the Heliconius butterfly clade (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), an early model for evolutionary genetics and speciation studies. The selected species represent two pairs of closely related and well-characterized species (Heliconius erato demophoon and H. e. etylus; H. melpomene rosina and H. m. ecuadorensis) as well as an additional species that has been the subject of attention in polymorphic mimicry and structural rearrangement research (Heliconius numata).High molecular weight (HMW) DNA were extracted from pupae of Heliconius numata, H. erato demophoon, H. e. etylus, H. melpomene rosina, and H. m. ecuadorensis using the QIAGEN Genomic Buffer kit (Cat. No. 19060) and 100/G Genomic-tips (Cat. No. 10243). HMW DNA quality and yield were quantified via Agilent TapeStation and Qubit fluorometer. Libraries were prepared using the PacBio Revio SPRQ chemistry kit at the Sequencing and Genomic Technologies Core Facility of Duke University and subsequently pooled for sequencing on the PacBio Revio. Resulting long-read data was processed following the pipeline documented at the provided external link.