A high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of the Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens L.) genome.

Hermetia illucens L. (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), the Black Soldier Fly (BSF) is an increasingly important mass reared entomological resource for bioconversion of organic waste and animal feed. A high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly will facilitate further study and genetic characterisation of BSF. We generated a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of the BSF using Pacific Bioscience, 10X Genomics linked-read and high-throughput chromosome conformation capture sequencing technology. The final assembly was combined with Hi-C data to produce a 1.01 Gb genome with 99.75% of scaffolds assembled into super-scaffolds representing seven chromosomes (six autosomes and one X chromosome) with 16.01 Mb contig and 180.46 Mb scaffold N50 values. The final assembly obtained a high BUSCO completeness of 98.6%. We masked 67.46% of the genome as repetitive sequences and annotated a total of 16,075 protein-coding genes using the BRAKER2 pipeline. Release of the first chromosomal BSF genome assembly will provide an improved high-quality platform for further genomic investigations in BSF research. This reference sequence will provide an essential tool for future genetic modifications, functional and population genomics.