Melipona bicolor Genome sequencing and assembly

Melipona bicolor is the only bee species recognised as truly polygynic. This native stingless bee from the Atlantic Forest may gather within the same colony multiple active and reproductive queens. Polygyny is a well studied and documented mechanism in ants, in which a social chromosome determines this behaviour. However, the genetic basis of polygyny in this bee is completely unknown. In this study we sequenced and assembled the complete genome of M. bicolor as the first step to understand the genomic factors beneath its polygyny. We used high coverage of long and short reads to generate a continuous genome assembly for this bee.