Data from: Chromosome-level genome of the melon thrips yields insights into evolution of a sap-sucking lifestyle and pesticide resistance

Thrips are tiny insects from the order Thysanoptera (Hexapoda:
Condylognatha), including many sap-sucking pests that are causing
increasing damage to crops worldwide. In contrast to their closest
relatives of Hemiptera (Hexapoda: Condylognatha) including numerous
sap-sucking species, there are few genomic resources available for thrips.
In this study, we assembled the first thrips genome at the chromosome
level from the melon thrips, Thrips palmi, a notorious pest in
agriculture, using PacBio long-read and Illumina short-read sequences. The
assembled genome was 270.43 Mb in size with 4,120 contigs and a contig N50
of 426 kb. All contigs were assembled into 16 linkage groups assisted by
the Hi-C technique. In total, 16,333 protein-coding genes were predicted,
of which 88.13% were functionally annotated. Among sap-sucking insects,
polyphagous species usually possess more detoxification genes than
oligophagous species. The polyphagous thrips genomes characterized so far
have relatively more detoxification genes in the GST and CCE families than
polyphagous aphids, but they have fewer UGTs. HSP genes, especially from
the Hsp70s group, have expanded in thrips compared to other hemipteran
insects. These differences point to different genetic mechanisms
associated with detoxification and stress responses in these two groups of
sap-sucking insects. The expansion of these gene families may contribute
to the rapid development of pesticide resistance in thrips, as supported
by a transcriptome comparison of resistant and sensitive populations of T.
palmi. The high-quality genome developed here provides an invaluable
resource for understanding the ecology, genetics and evolution of thrips
as well as their relatives more generally.