Whole genome sequence of Daphnia pulex MFP strain

Daphnia reproduce by cyclical parthenogenesis, alternating between sexual and asexual reproduction depending on environmental conditions. However, Daphnia pulex inhabiting Japan are known to have lost the ability for sexual reproduction and reproduce only asexually. This loss of sexual reproduction is thought to have resulted from hybridization between North American D. pulex introduced into Japan and the closely related species D. pulicaria. In this study, we sequenced the whole genome of the D. pulex MFP strain collected in Hokkaido and performed sequencing analyses using both the PacBio and Illumina platforms to elucidate the process of interspecific hybridization and the resulting loss of sexual reproduction.