The genome and transcriptome of Drosophila suzukii

Drosophila fruit flies have often provided science with cases of behavioural adaptation and genetic innovation. A recent example is the invasive pest Drosophila suzukii, which, unlike most other fruit flies, lays eggs and feeds on undamaged, ripening fruits. This poses serious threat for fruit cultivation, but also offers an interesting model to study the evolution of behavioural innovation. With the twofold aim of providing essential genomic tools and elucidating the evolutionary history of this species, we constructed a draft genome and transcriptome of D. suzukii. The starting materials were flies derived the fifth generation of inbreeding of a wild-caught population from from North Italy (Val Sugana, Trentino). RNA was extracted from individuals of a mixed population at various life stages. cDNA and short DNA libraries were sequenced at the GenePool Genomics Facility of the University of Edinburgh, using 100 base paired end sequencing on the Illumina Hiseq2000 platform.