Rapid Low-Cost Assembly of the Drosophila melanogaster Reference Genome Using Low-Coverage, Long-Read Sequencing

A wild melon reference genome provides novel insights into the domestication of a key gene responsible for melon fruit acidity

KEY MESSAGE

A wild melon reference genome elucidates the genomic basis of fruit acidity domestication. Structural variants (SVs) have been reported to impose major effects on agronomic traits, representing a significant contributor to crop domestication. However, the landscape of SVs between wild and cultivated melons is elusive and how SVs have contributed to melon domestication remains largely unexplored. Here, we report a 379-Mb chromosome-scale genome of a wild progenitor melon accession "P84", with a contig N50 of 14.9 Mb. Genome comparison identifies 10,589 SVs between P84 and four cultivated melons with 6937 not characterized in previously analysis of 25 melon genome sequences. Furthermore, the population-scale genotyping of these SVs was determined in 1175 accessions, and 18 GWAS signals including fruit acidity, fruit length, fruit weight, fruit color and sex determination were detected. Based on these genotyped SVs, we identified 3317 highly diverged SVs between wild and cultivated melons, which could be the potential SVs associated with domestication-related traits. Furthermore, we identify novel SVs affecting fruit acidity and proposed the diverged evolutionary trajectories of CmPH, a key regulator of melon fruit acidity, during domestication and selection of different populations. These results will offer valuable resources for genomic studies and genetic improvement in melon.

Developmental and Housekeeping Genes: Two Types of Genetic Organization in the Drosophila Genome

We developed a procedure for locating genes on Drosophila melanogaster polytene chromosomes and described three types of chromosome structures (gray bands, black bands, and interbands), which differed markedly in morphological and genetic properties. This was reached through the use of our original methods of molecular and genetic analysis, electron microscopy, and bioinformatics data processing. Analysis of the genome-wide distribution of these properties led us to a bioinformatics model of the Drosophila genome organization, in which the genome was divided into two groups of genes. One was constituted by 65, in which the genome was divided into two groups, 62 genes that are expressed in most cell types during life cycle and perform basic cellular functions (the so-called "housekeeping genes"). The other one was made up of 3162 genes that are expressed only at particular stages of development ("developmental genes"). These two groups of genes are so different that we may state that the genome has two types of genetic organization. Different are the timings of their expression, chromatin packaging levels, the composition of activating and deactivating proteins, the sizes of these genes, the lengths of their introns, the organization of the promoter regions of the genes, the locations of origin recognition complexes (ORCs), and DNA replication timings.

The updated genome of the Hungarian population of Aedes koreicus

Vector-borne diseases pose a potential risk to human and animal welfare, and understanding their spread requires genomic resources. The mosquito Aedes koreicus is an emerging vector that has been introduced into Europe more than 15 years ago but only a low quality, fragmented genome was available. In this study, we carried out additional sequencing and assembled and characterized the genome of the species to provide a background for understanding its evolution and biology. The updated genome was 1.1 Gbp long and consisted of 6099 contigs with an N50 value of 329,610 bp and a BUSCO score of 84%. We identified 22,580 genes that could be functionally annotated and paid particular attention to the identification of potential insecticide resistance genes. The assessment of the orthology of the genes indicates a high turnover at the terminal branches of the species tree of mosquitoes with complete genomes, which could contribute to the adaptation and evolutionary success of the species. These results could form the basis for numerous downstream analyzes to develop targets for the control of mosquito populations.

The draft genome of Spiraea crenata L. (Rosaceae) - the first complete genome in tribe Spiraeeae

Spiraea crenata L. is a deciduous shrub distributed across the Eurasian steppe zone. The species is of cultural and horticultural importance and occurs in scattered populations throughout its westernmost range. Currently, there is no genomic information on the tribe of Spiraeeae. Therefore we sequenced and assembled the whole genome of S. crenata using second- and third-generation sequencing and a hybrid assembly approach to expand genomic resources for conservation and support research on this horticulturally important lineage. In addition to the organellar genomes (the plastome and the mitochondrion), we present the first draft genome of the species with an estimated size of 220 Mbp, an N50 value of 7.7 Mbp, and a BUSCO score of 96.0%. Being the first complete genome in tribe Spiraeeae, this may not only be the first step in the genomic study of a rare plant but also a contribution to genomic resources supporting the study of biodiversity and evolutionary history of Rosaceae.

Plasmid-encoded lactose metabolism and mobilized colistin resistance (mcr-9) genes in Salmonella enterica serovars isolated from dairy facilities in the 1980s

Horizontal gene transfer by plasmids can confer metabolic capabilities that expand a host cell's niche. Yet, it is less understood whether the coalescence of specialized catabolic functions, antibiotic resistances and metal resistances on plasmids provides synergistic benefits. In this study, we report whole-genome assembly and phenotypic analysis of five Salmonella enterica strains isolated in the 1980s from milk powder in Munich, Germany. All strains exhibited the unusual phenotype of lactose-fermentation and encoded either of two variants of the lac operon. Surprisingly, all strains encoded the mobilized colistin resistance gene 9 (mcr-9), long before the first report of this gene in the literature. In two cases, the mcr-9 gene and the lac locus were linked within a large gene island that formed an IncHI2A-type plasmid in one strain but was chromosomally integrated in the other strain. In two other strains, the mcr-9 gene was found on a large IncHI1B/IncP-type plasmid, whereas the lac locus was encoded on a separate chromosomally integrated plasmidic island. The mcr-9 sequences were identical and genomic contexts could not explain the wide range of colistin resistances exhibited by the Salmonella strains. Nucleotide variants did explain phenotypic differences in motility and exopolysaccharide production. The observed linkage of mcr-9 to lactose metabolism, an array of heavy-metal detoxification systems, and other antibiotic resistance genes may reflect a coalescence of specialized phenotypes that improve the spread of colistin resistance in dairy facilities, much earlier than previously suspected.

The composition of piRNA clusters in Drosophila melanogaster deviates from expectations under the trap model

BACKGROUND

It is widely assumed that the invasion of a transposable element (TE) in mammals and invertebrates is stopped when a copy of the TE jumps into a piRNA cluster (i.e., the trap model). However, recent works, which for example showed that deletion of three major piRNA clusters has no effect on TE activity, cast doubt on the trap model.

RESULTS

Here, we test the trap model from a population genetics perspective. Our simulations show that the composition of regions that act as transposon traps (i.e., potentially piRNA clusters) ought to deviate from regions that have no effect on TE activity. We investigated TEs in five Drosophila melanogaster strains using three complementary approaches to test whether the composition of piRNA clusters matches these expectations. We found that the abundance of TE families inside and outside of piRNA clusters is highly correlated, although this is not expected under the trap model. Furthermore, the distribution of the number of TE insertions in piRNA clusters is also much broader than expected.

CONCLUSIONS

We found that the observed composition of piRNA clusters is not in agreement with expectations under the simple trap model. Dispersed piRNA producing TE insertions and temporal as well as spatial heterogeneity of piRNA clusters may account for these deviations.

The hologenome of Daphnia magna reveals possible DNA methylation and microbiome-mediated evolution of the host genome

Properties that make organisms ideal laboratory models in developmental and medical research are often the ones that also make them less representative of wild relatives. The waterflea Daphnia magna is an exception, by both sharing many properties with established laboratory models and being a keystone species, a sentinel species for assessing water quality, an indicator of environmental change and an established ecotoxicology model. Yet, Daphnia's full potential has not been fully exploited because of the challenges associated with assembling and annotating its gene-rich genome. Here, we present the first hologenome of Daphnia magna, consisting of a chromosomal-level assembly of the D. magna genome and the draft assembly of its metagenome. By sequencing and mapping transcriptomes from exposures to environmental conditions and from developmental morphological landmarks, we expand the previously annotates gene set for this species. We also provide evidence for the potential role of gene-body DNA-methylation as a mutagen mediating genome evolution. For the first time, our study shows that the gut microbes provide resistance to commonly used antibiotics and virulence factors, potentially mediating Daphnia's environmental-driven rapid evolution. Key findings in this study improve our understanding of the contribution of DNA methylation and gut microbiota to genome evolution in response to rapidly changing environments.

Single-fly assemblies fill major phylogenomic gaps across the Drosophilidae Tree of Life

Long-read sequencing is driving rapid progress in genome assembly across all major groups of life, including species of the family Drosophilidae, a longtime model system for genetics, genomics, and evolution. We previously developed a cost-effective hybrid Oxford Nanopore (ONT) long-read and Illumina short-read sequencing approach and used it to assemble 101 drosophilid genomes from laboratory cultures, greatly increasing the number of genome assemblies for this taxonomic group. The next major challenge is to address the laboratory culture bias in taxon sampling by sequencing genomes of species that cannot easily be reared in the lab. Here, we build upon our previous methods to perform amplification-free ONT sequencing of single wild flies obtained either directly from the field or from ethanol-preserved specimens in museum collections, greatly improving the representation of lesser studied drosophilid taxa in whole-genome data. Using Illumina Novaseq X Plus and ONT P2 sequencers with R10.4.1 chemistry, we set a new benchmark for inexpensive hybrid genome assembly at US $150 per genome while assembling genomes from as little as 35 ng of genomic DNA from a single fly. We present 183 new genome assemblies for 179 species as a resource for drosophilid systematics, phylogenetics, and comparative genomics. Of these genomes, 62 are from pooled lab strains and 121 from single adult flies. Despite the sample limitations of working with small insects, most single-fly diploid assemblies are comparable in contiguity (>1Mb contig N50), completeness (>98% complete dipteran BUSCOs), and accuracy (>QV40 genome-wide with ONT R10.4.1) to assemblies from inbred lines. We present a well-resolved multi-locus phylogeny for 360 drosophilid and 4 outgroup species encompassing all publicly available (as of August 2023) genomes for this group. Finally, we present a Progressive Cactus whole-genome, reference-free alignment built from a subset of 298 suitably high-quality drosophilid genomes. The new assemblies and alignment, along with updated laboratory protocols and computational pipelines, are released as an open resource and as a tool for studying evolution at the scale of an entire insect family.

An ecologist's guide for studying DNA methylation variation in wild vertebrates

The field of molecular biology is advancing fast with new powerful technologies, sequencing methods and analysis software being developed constantly. Commonly used tools originally developed for research on humans and model species are now regularly used in ecological and evolutionary research. There is also a growing interest in the causes and consequences of epigenetic variation in natural populations. Studying ecological epigenetics is currently challenging, especially for vertebrate systems, because of the required technical expertise, complications with analyses and interpretation, and limitations in acquiring sufficiently high sample sizes. Importantly, neglecting the limitations of the experimental setup, technology and analyses may affect the reliability and reproducibility, and the extent to which unbiased conclusions can be drawn from these studies. Here, we provide a practical guide for researchers aiming to study DNA methylation variation in wild vertebrates. We review the technical aspects of epigenetic research, concentrating on DNA methylation using bisulfite sequencing, discuss the limitations and possible pitfalls, and how to overcome them through rigid and reproducible data analysis. This review provides a solid foundation for the proper design of epigenetic studies, a clear roadmap on the best practices for correct data analysis and a realistic view on the limitations for studying ecological epigenetics in vertebrates. This review will help researchers studying the ecological and evolutionary implications of epigenetic variation in wild populations.

Analyses of 600+ insect genomes reveal repetitive element dynamics and highlight biodiversity-scale repeat annotation challenges

Repetitive elements (REs) are integral to the composition, structure, and function of eukaryotic genomes, yet remain understudied in most taxonomic groups. We investigated REs across 601 insect species and report wide variation in RE dynamics across groups. Analysis of associations between REs and protein-coding genes revealed dynamic evolution at the interface between REs and coding regions across insects, including notably elevated RE-gene associations in lineages with abundant long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs). We leveraged this large, empirical data set to quantify impacts of long-read technology on RE detection and investigate fundamental challenges to RE annotation in diverse groups. In long-read assemblies, we detected ∼36% more REs than short-read assemblies, with long terminal repeats (LTRs) showing 162% increased detection, whereas DNA transposons and LINEs showed less respective technology-related bias. In most insect lineages, 25%-85% of repetitive sequences were "unclassified" following automated annotation, compared with only ∼13% in Drosophila species. Although the diversity of available insect genomes has rapidly expanded, we show the rate of community contributions to RE databases has not kept pace, preventing efficient annotation and high-resolution study of REs in most groups. We highlight the tremendous opportunity and need for the biodiversity genomics field to embrace REs and suggest collective steps for making progress toward this goal.

Near chromosome-level genome assembly of the microsporidium Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis

Microsporidia are intracellular parasitic fungi whose genomes rank among the smallest of all known eukaryotes. A number of outstanding questions remain concerning the evolution of their large-scale variation in genome architecture, responsible for genome size variation of more than an order of magnitude. This genome report presents the first near-chromosomal assembly of a large-genome microsporidium, Hamiltosporidium tvaerminnensis. Combined Oxford Nanopore, Pacific Biosciences (PacBio), and Illumina sequencing led to a genome assembly of 17 contigs, 11 of which represent complete chromosomes. Our assembly is 21.64 Mb in length, has an N50 of 1.44 Mb, and consists of 39.56% interspersed repeats. We introduce a novel approach in microsporidia, PacBio Iso-Seq, as part of a larger annotation pipeline for obtaining high-quality annotations of 3,573 protein-coding genes. Based on direct evidence from the full-length Iso-Seq transcripts, we present evidence for alternative polyadenylation and variation in splicing efficiency, which are potential regulation mechanisms for gene expression in microsporidia. The generated high-quality genome assembly is a necessary resource for comparative genomics that will help elucidate the evolution of genome architecture in response to intracellular parasitism.

Chromosome-level genome assembly and population genetic analysis of a near-threatened rosewood species (Dalbergia cultrata Pierre Graham ex Benth) provide insights into its evolutionary and cold stress responses

Dalbergia cultrata Pierre Graham ex Benth (D. cultrata) is a precious rosewood tree species that grows in the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia. In this study, we used PacBio long-reading sequencing technology and Hi-C assistance to sequence and assemble the reference genome of D. cultrata. We generated 171.47 Gb PacBio long reads and 72.43 Gb Hi-C data and yielded an assembly of 10 pseudochromosomes with a total size of 690.99 Mb and Scaffold N50 of 65.76 Mb. The analysis of specific genes revealed that the triterpenoids represented by lupeol may play an important role in D. cultrata's potential medicinal value. Using the new reference genome, we analyzed the resequencing of 19 Dalbergia accessions and found that D. cultrata and D. cochinchinensis have the latest genetic relationship. Transcriptome sequencing of D. cultrata leaves grown under cold stress revealed that MYB transcription factor and E3 ubiquitin ligase may be playing an important role in the cold response of D. cultrata. Genome resources and identified genetic variation, especially those genes related to the biosynthesis of phytochemicals and cold stress response, will be helpful for the introduction, domestication, utilization, and further breeding of Dalbergia species.

Chromosome-level, nanopore-only genome and allele-specific DNA methylation of Pallas's cat, Otocolobus manul

Pallas's cat, or the manul cat (Otocolobus manul), is a small felid native to the grasslands and steppes of central Asia. Population strongholds in Mongolia and China face growing challenges from climate change, habitat fragmentation, poaching, and other sources. These threats, combined with O. manul's zoo collection popularity and value in evolutionary biology, necessitate improvement of species genomic resources. We used standalone nanopore sequencing to assemble a 2.5 Gb, 61-contig nuclear assembly and 17097 bp mitogenome for O. manul. The primary nuclear assembly had 56× sequencing coverage, a contig N50 of 118 Mb, and a 94.7% BUSCO completeness score for Carnivora-specific genes. High genome collinearity within Felidae permitted alignment-based scaffolding onto the fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) reference genome. Manul contigs spanned all 19 felid chromosomes with an inferred total gap length of less than 400 kilobases. Modified basecalling and variant phasing produced an alternate pseudohaplotype assembly and allele-specific DNA methylation calls; 61 differentially methylated regions were identified between haplotypes. Nearest features included classical imprinted genes, non-coding RNAs, and putative novel imprinted loci. The assembled mitogenome successfully resolved existing discordance between Felinae nuclear and mtDNA phylogenies. All assembly drafts were generated from 158 Gb of sequence using seven minION flow cells.

Rapid evolution of piRNA clusters in the Drosophila melanogaster ovary

Animal genomes are parasitized by a horde of transposable elements (TEs) whose mutagenic activity can have catastrophic consequences. The piRNA pathway is a conserved mechanism to repress TE activity in the germline via a specialized class of small RNAs associated with effector Piwi proteins called piwi-associated RNAs (piRNAs). piRNAs are produced from discrete genomic regions called piRNA clusters (piCs). While piCs are generally enriched for TE sequences and the molecular processes by which they are transcribed and regulated are relatively well understood in Drosophila melanogaster, much less is known about the origin and evolution of piCs in this or any other species. To investigate piC evolution, we use a population genomics approach to compare piC activity and sequence composition across 8 geographically distant strains of D. melanogaster with high quality long-read genome assemblies. We perform extensive annotations of ovary piCs and TE content in each strain and test predictions of two proposed models of piC evolution. The 'de novo' model posits that individual TE insertions can spontaneously attain the status of a small piC to generate piRNAs silencing the entire TE family. The 'trap' model envisions large and evolutionary stable genomic clusters where TEs tend to accumulate and serves as a long-term "memory" of ancient TE invasions and produce a great variety of piRNAs protecting against related TEs entering the genome. It remains unclear which model best describes the evolution of piCs. Our analysis uncovers extensive variation in piC activity across strains and signatures of rapid birth and death of piCs in natural populations. Most TE families inferred to be recently or currently active show an enrichment of strain-specific insertions into large piCs, consistent with the trap model. By contrast, only a small subset of active LTR retrotransposon families is enriched for the formation of strain-specific piCs, suggesting that these families have an inherent proclivity to form de novo piCs. Thus, our findings support aspects of both 'de novo' and 'trap' models of piC evolution. We propose that these two models represent two extreme stages along an evolutionary continuum, which begins with the emergence of piCs de novo from a few specific LTR retrotransposon insertions that subsequently expand by accretion of other TE insertions during evolution to form larger 'trap' clusters. Our study shows that piCs are evolutionarily labile and that TEs themselves are the major force driving the formation and evolution of piCs.

TrEMOLO: accurate transposable element allele frequency estimation using long-read sequencing data combining assembly and mapping-based approaches

Transposable Element MOnitoring with LOng-reads (TrEMOLO) is a new software that combines assembly- and mapping-based approaches to robustly detect genetic elements called transposable elements (TEs). Using high- or low-quality genome assemblies, TrEMOLO can detect most TE insertions and deletions and estimate their allele frequency in populations. Benchmarking with simulated data revealed that TrEMOLO outperforms other state-of-the-art computational tools. TE detection and frequency estimation by TrEMOLO were validated using simulated and experimental datasets. Therefore, TrEMOLO is a comprehensive and suitable tool to accurately study TE dynamics. TrEMOLO is available under GNU GPL3.0 at https://github.com/DrosophilaGenomeEvolution/TrEMOLO .

A gap-free genome assembly of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and detection of translocations induced by CRISPR-mediated mutagenesis

Genomic assemblies of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have provided important resources for researchers. However, assembly errors, large gaps, and unplaced scaffolds as well as strain-specific variants currently impede many types of analysis. By combining PacBio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore long-read technologies, we generated a de novo genome assembly for strain CC-5816, derived from crosses of strains CC-125 and CC-124. Multiple methods of evaluating genome completeness and base-pair error rate suggest that the final telomere-to-telomere assembly is highly accurate. The CC-5816 assembly enabled previously difficult analyses that include characterization of the 17 centromeres, rDNA arrays on three chromosomes, and 56 insertions of organellar DNA into the nuclear genome. Using Nanopore sequencing, we identified sites of cytosine (CpG) methylation, which are enriched at centromeres. We analyzed CRISPR-Cas9 insertional mutants in the PF23 gene. Two of the three alleles produced progeny that displayed patterns of meiotic inviability that suggested the presence of a chromosomal aberration. Mapping Nanopore reads from pf23-2 and pf23-3 onto the CC-5816 genome showed that these two strains each carry a translocation that was initiated at the PF23 gene locus on chromosome 11 and joined with chromosomes 5 or 3, respectively. The translocations were verified by demonstrating linkage between loci on the two translocated chromosomes in meiotic progeny. The three pf23 alleles display the expected short-cilia phenotype, and immunoblotting showed that pf23-2 lacks the PF23 protein. Our CC-5816 genome assembly will undoubtedly provide an important tool for the Chlamydomonas research community.

Sequencing and assembling bear genomes: the bare necessities

Unique genetic adaptations are present in bears of every species across the world. From (nearly) shutting down important organs during hibernation to preventing harm from lifestyles that could easily cause metabolic diseases in humans, bears may hold the answer to various human ailments. However, only a few of these unique traits are currently being investigated at the molecular level, partly because of the lack of necessary tools. One of these tools is well-annotated genome assemblies from the different, extant bear species. These reference genomes are needed to allow us to identify differences in genetic variants, isoforms, gene expression, and genomic features such as transposons and identify those that are associated with biomedical-relevant traits. In this review we assess the current state of the genome assemblies of the eight different bear species, discuss current gaps, and the future benefits these reference genomes may have in informing human biomedical applications, while at the same time improving bear conservation efforts.

ONT-Based Alternative Assemblies Impact on the Annotations of Unique versus Repetitive Features in the Genome of a Romanian Strain of Drosophila melanogaster

To date, different strategies of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) have been developed in order to understand the genome structure and functions. However, the analysis of genomic sequences obtained from natural populations is challenging and the biological interpretation of sequencing data remains the main issue. The MinION device developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is able to generate long reads with minimal costs and time requirements. These valuable assets qualify it as a suitable method for performing WGS, especially in small laboratories. The long reads resulted using this sequencing approach can cover large structural variants and repetitive sequences commonly present in the genomes of eukaryotes. Using MinION, we performed two WGS assessments of a Romanian local strain of Drosophila melanogaster, referred to as Horezu_LaPeri (Horezu). In total, 1,317,857 reads with a size of 8.9 gigabytes (Gb) were generated. Canu and Flye de novo assembly tools were employed to obtain four distinct assemblies with both unfiltered and filtered reads, achieving maximum reference genome coverages of 94.8% (Canu) and 91.4% (Flye). In order to test the quality of these assemblies, we performed a two-step evaluation. Firstly, we considered the BUSCO scores and inquired for a supplemental set of genes using BLAST. Subsequently, we appraised the total content of natural transposons (NTs) relative to the reference genome (ISO1 strain) and mapped the mdg1 retroelement as a resolution assayer. Our results reveal that filtered data provide only slightly enhanced results when considering genes identification, but the use of unfiltered data had a consistent positive impact on the global evaluation of the NTs content. Our comparative studies also revealed differences between Flye and Canu assemblies regarding the annotation of unique versus repetitive genomic features. In our hands, Flye proved to be moderately better for gene identification, while Canu clearly outperformed Flye for NTs analysis. Data concerning the NTs content were compared to those obtained with ONT for the D. melanogaster ISO1 strain, revealing that our strategy conducted to better results. Additionally, the parameters of our ONT reads and assemblies are similar to those reported for ONT experiments performed on various model organisms, revealing that our assembly data are appropriate for a proficient annotation of the Horezu genome.

Secondary reversion to sexual monomorphism associated with tissue-specific loss of doublesex expression

Animal evolution is characterized by frequent turnover of sexually dimorphic traits-new sex-specific characters are gained, and some ancestral sex-specific characters are lost, in many lineages. In insects, sexual differentiation is predominantly cell autonomous and depends on the expression of the doublesex (dsx) transcription factor. In most cases, cells that transcribe dsx have the potential to undergo sex-specific differentiation, while those that lack dsx expression do not. Consistent with this mode of development, comparative research has shown that the origin of new sex-specific traits can be associated with the origin of new spatial domains of dsx expression. In this report, we examine the opposite situation-a secondary loss of the sex comb, a male-specific grasping structure that develops on the front legs of some drosophilid species. We show that while the origin of the sex comb is linked to an evolutionary gain of dsx expression in the leg, sex comb loss in a newly identified species of Lordiphosa (Drosophilidae) is associated with a secondary loss of dsx expression. We discuss how the developmental control of sexual dimorphism affects the mechanisms by which sex-specific traits can evolve.

Ongoing endeavors to detect mobilization of transposable elements

Transposable elements (TEs) are DNA sequences capable of mobilization from one location to another in the genome. Since the discovery of ‘Dissociation (Dc) locus’ by Barbara McClintock in maize (1), mounting evidence in the era of genomics indicates that a significant fraction of most eukaryotic genomes is composed of TE sequences, involving in various aspects of biological processes such as development, physiology, diseases and evolution. Although technical advances in genomics have discovered numerous functional impacts of TE across species, our understanding of TEs is still ongoing process due to challenges resulted from complexity and abundance of TEs in the genome. In this mini-review, we briefly summarize biology of TEs and their impacts on the host genome, emphasizing importance of understanding TE landscape in the genome. Then, we introduce recent endeavors especially in vivo retrotransposition assays and long read sequencing technology for identifying de novo insertions/TE polymorphism, which will broaden our knowledge of extraordinary relationship between genomic cohabitants and their host.

Evidence of multiple genome duplication events in Mytilus evolution

Background

Molluscs remain one significantly under-represented taxa amongst available genomic resources, despite being the second-largest animal phylum and the recent advances in genomes sequencing technologies and genome assembly techniques. With the present work, we want to contribute to the growing efforts by filling this gap, presenting a new high-quality reference genome for Mytilus edulis and investigating the evolutionary history within the Mytilidae family, in relation to other species in the class Bivalvia.

Results

Here we present, for the first time, the discovery of multiple whole genome duplication events in the Mytilidae family and, more generally, in the class Bivalvia. In addition, the calculation of evolution rates for three species of the Mytilinae subfamily sheds new light onto the taxa evolution and highlights key orthologs of interest for the study of Mytilus species divergences.

Conclusions

The reference genome presented here will enable the correct identification of molecular markers for evolutionary, population genetics, and conservation studies. Mytilidae have the capability to become a model shellfish for climate change adaptation using genome-enabled systems biology and multi-disciplinary studies of interactions between abiotic stressors, pathogen attacks, and aquaculture practises.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08575-9.

Population-scale long-read sequencing uncovers transposable elements associated with gene expression variation and adaptive signatures in Drosophila

High quality reference genomes are crucial to understanding genome function, structure and evolution. The availability of reference genomes has allowed us to start inferring the role of genetic variation in biology, disease, and biodiversity conservation. However, analyses across organisms demonstrate that a single reference genome is not enough to capture the global genetic diversity present in populations. In this work, we generate 32 high-quality reference genomes for the well-known model species D. melanogaster and focus on the identification and analysis of transposable element variation as they are the most common type of structural variant. We show that integrating the genetic variation across natural populations from five climatic regions increases the number of detected insertions by 58%. Moreover, 26% to 57% of the insertions identified using long-reads were missed by short-reads methods. We also identify hundreds of transposable elements associated with gene expression variation and new TE variants likely to contribute to adaptive evolution in this species. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating the genetic variation present in natural populations to genomic studies, which is essential if we are to understand how genomes function and evolve.

Even in well-studied species, there is still substantial natural genetic variation that has not been characterized. Here, the authors use long read sequencing to discover transposable elements in the Drosophila genome not detected by short read sequencing, and link them to gene expression.

Genome assembly, annotation, and comparative analysis of the cattail Typha latifolia

Cattails (Typha species) comprise a genus of emergent wetland plants with a global distribution. Typha latifolia and Typha angustifolia are two of the most widespread species, and in areas of sympatry can interbreed to produce the hybrid Typha × glauca. In some regions, the relatively high fitness of Typha × glauca allows it to outcompete and displace both parent species, while simultaneously reducing plant and invertebrate biodiversity, and modifying nutrient and water cycling. We generated a high-quality whole-genome assembly of T. latifolia using PacBio long-read and high coverage Illumina sequences that will facilitate evolutionary and ecological studies in this hybrid zone. Genome size was 287 Mb and consisted of 1158 scaffolds, with an N50 of 8.71 Mb; 43.84% of the genome were identified as repetitive elements. The assembly has a BUSCO score of 96.03%, and 27,432 genes and 2700 RNA sequences were putatively identified. Comparative analysis detected over 9000 shared orthologs with related taxa and phylogenomic analysis supporting T. latifolia as a divergent lineage within Poales. This high-quality scaffold-level reference genome will provide a useful resource for future population genomic analyses and improve our understanding of Typha hybrid dynamics.

Novel quality metrics allow identifying and generating high-quality assemblies of piRNA clusters

In most animals, it is thought that the proliferation of a transposable element (TE) is stopped when the TE jumps into a piRNA cluster. Despite this central importance, little is known about the composition and the evolutionary dynamics of piRNA clusters. This is largely because piRNA clusters are notoriously difficult to assemble as they are frequently composed of highly repetitive DNA. With long reads, we may finally be able to obtain reliable assemblies of piRNA clusters. Unfortunately, it is unclear how to generate and identify the best assemblies, as many assembly strategies exist and standard quality metrics are ignorant of TEs. To address these problems, we introduce several novel quality metrics that assess: (a) the fraction of completely assembled piRNA clusters, (b) the quality of the assembled clusters and (c) whether an assembly captures the overall TE landscape of an organisms (i.e. the abundance, the number of SNPs and internal deletions of all TE families). The requirements for computing these metrics vary, ranging from annotations of piRNA clusters to consensus sequences of TEs and genomic sequencing data. Using these novel metrics, we evaluate the effect of assembly algorithm, polishing, read length, coverage, residual polymorphisms and finally identify strategies that yield reliable assemblies of piRNA clusters. Based on an optimized approach, we provide assemblies for the two Drosophila melanogaster strains Canton-S and Pi2. About 80% of known piRNA clusters were assembled in both strains. Finally, we demonstrate the generality of our approach by extending our metrics to humans and Arabidopsis thaliana.

Applications and potentials of nanopore sequencing in the (epi)genome and (epi)transcriptome era

The Human Genome Project opened an era of (epi)genomic research, and also provided a platform for the development of new sequencing technologies. During and after the project, several sequencing technologies continue to dominate nucleic acid sequencing markets. Currently, Illumina (short-read), PacBio (long-read), and Oxford Nanopore (long-read) are the most popular sequencing technologies. Unlike PacBio or the popular short-read sequencers before it, which, as examples of the second or so-called Next-Generation Sequencing platforms, need to synthesize when sequencing, nanopore technology directly sequences native DNA and RNA molecules. Nanopore sequencing, therefore, avoids converting mRNA into cDNA molecules, which not only allows for the sequencing of extremely long native DNA and full-length RNA molecules but also document modifications that have been made to those native DNA or RNA bases. In this review on direct DNA sequencing and direct RNA sequencing using Oxford Nanopore technology, we focus on their development and application achievements, discussing their challenges and future perspective. We also address the problems researchers may encounter applying these approaches in their research topics, and how to resolve them.

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Nanopore-seq can dissect native DNA/RNA molecules from any organisms at unlimited length

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A wide variety of algorithms greatly increase the accuracy of signal decoding in Nanopore-Seq

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Nanopore-Seq significantly facilitates genome assembly and structural variant calling, and can simultaneously detect base modifications

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These advantages ensure its great potentials in future medical and agricultural practices

Hymenoptera Genome Database: new genomes and annotation datasets for improved go enrichment and orthologue analyses

We report an update of the Hymenoptera Genome Database (HGD; http://HymenopteraGenome.org), a genomic database of hymenopteran insect species. The number of species represented in HGD has nearly tripled, with fifty-eight hymenopteran species, including twenty bees, twenty-three ants, eleven wasps and four sawflies. With a reorganized website, HGD continues to provide the HymenopteraMine genomic data mining warehouse and JBrowse/Apollo genome browsers integrated with BLAST. We have computed Gene Ontology (GO) annotations for all species, greatly enhancing the GO annotation data gathered from UniProt with more than a ten-fold increase in the number of GO-annotated genes. We have also generated orthology datasets that encompass all HGD species and provide orthologue clusters for fourteen taxonomic groups. The new GO annotation and orthology data are available for searching in HymenopteraMine, and as bulk file downloads.

Comparative genomic analysis of different sexes and diet-specific amino acid mutation identification in Ancherythroculter nigrocauda

Determining the sex and controlling the sex ratio are essential aspects of fish genetics that can assist in developing successful fish breeding programs. High quality genome assembly and annotations are prerequisites to determine sex-specific genes and their expression. In addition, analysis of resequencing data can identify genomic difference between male and female fishes. In this study, we performed chromosome-level genome assembly in female Ancherythroculter nigrocauda fish having low heterozygosity using PacBio reads. High-throughput chromatin conformation capture (HiC) yielded a genome of size 1054.05 Mb, with a contig N50 length of 3.40 Mb and a scaffold N50 length of 42.68 Mb. In addition, we sequenced 5 female and 5 male A. nigrocauda samples and identified sex-specific regions on LG20 Furthermore, diet-specific amino acid mutation were found on 582 genes between herbivorous and carnivorous fishes, with 26 of them exhibiting significantly different expression patterns in the liver tissue of these two types of fishes. The chromosome-level genome assembly of A. nigrocauda provides valuable resources for conducting in-depth comparative genomic studies with immense applications in fish genetic breeding and farming. Similarly, the diet-specific amino acid mutations are useful in the breeding of new strains of carnivorous fishes with an herbivorous diet.

Highly contiguous assemblies of 101 drosophilid genomes

Over 100 years of studies in Drosophila melanogaster and related species in the genus Drosophila have facilitated key discoveries in genetics, genomics, and evolution. While high-quality genome assemblies exist for several species in this group, they only encompass a small fraction of the genus. Recent advances in long-read sequencing allow high-quality genome assemblies for tens or even hundreds of species to be efficiently generated. Here, we utilize Oxford Nanopore sequencing to build an open community resource of genome assemblies for 101 lines of 93 drosophilid species encompassing 14 species groups and 35 sub-groups. The genomes are highly contiguous and complete, with an average contig N50 of 10.5 Mb and greater than 97% BUSCO completeness in 97/101 assemblies. We show that Nanopore-based assemblies are highly accurate in coding regions, particularly with respect to coding insertions and deletions. These assemblies, along with a detailed laboratory protocol and assembly pipelines, are released as a public resource and will serve as a starting point for addressing broad questions of genetics, ecology, and evolution at the scale of hundreds of species.

LazyB: fast and cheap genome assembly

Background

Advances in genome sequencing over the last years have lead to a fundamental paradigm shift in the field. With steadily decreasing sequencing costs, genome projects are no longer limited by the cost of raw sequencing data, but rather by computational problems associated with genome assembly. There is an urgent demand for more efficient and and more accurate methods is particular with regard to the highly complex and often very large genomes of animals and plants. Most recently, “hybrid” methods that integrate short and long read data have been devised to address this need.

Results

LazyB is such a hybrid genome assembler. It has been designed specificially with an emphasis on utilizing low-coverage short and long reads. LazyB starts from a bipartite overlap graph between long reads and restrictively filtered short-read unitigs. This graph is translated into a long-read overlap graph G. Instead of the more conventional approach of removing tips, bubbles, and other local features, LazyB stepwisely extracts subgraphs whose global properties approach a disjoint union of paths. First, a consistently oriented subgraph is extracted, which in a second step is reduced to a directed acyclic graph. In the next step, properties of proper interval graphs are used to extract contigs as maximum weight paths. These path are translated into genomic sequences only in the final step. A prototype implementation of LazyB, entirely written in python, not only yields significantly more accurate assemblies of the yeast and fruit fly genomes compared to state-of-the-art pipelines but also requires much less computational effort.

Conclusions

LazyB is new low-cost genome assembler that copes well with large genomes and low coverage. It is based on a novel approach for reducing the overlap graph to a collection of paths, thus opening new avenues for future improvements.

Availability

The LazyB prototype is available at https://github.com/TGatter/LazyB.

The Use of Fecal Microbiome Transplant in Treating Human Diseases: Too Early for Poop?

Fecal microbiome transplant (FMT) has gained popularity over the past few years, given its success in treating several gastrointestinal diseases. At the same time, microbial populations in the gut have been shown to have more physiological effects than we expected as "habitants" of the gut. The imbalance in the gut microbiome or dysbiosis, particularly when there are excessive harmful pathogens, can trigger not just infections but can also result in the development of common diseases, such as cancer and cardiometabolic diseases. By using FMT technology, the dysbiosis of the gut microbiome in patients can be resolved by administering fecal materials from a healthy donor. The current review summarizes the history and current uses of FMT before suggesting potential ideas for its high-quality application in clinical settings.

Understanding the Early Evolutionary Stages of a Tandem Drosophilamelanogaster-Specific Gene Family: A Structural and Functional Population Study

Gene families underlie genetic innovation and phenotypic diversification. However, our understanding of the early genomic and functional evolution of tandemly arranged gene families remains incomplete as paralog sequence similarity hinders their accurate characterization. The Drosophila melanogaster-specific gene family Sdic is tandemly repeated and impacts sperm competition. We scrutinized Sdic in 20 geographically diverse populations using reference-quality genome assemblies, read-depth methodologies, and qPCR, finding that ∼90% of the individuals harbor 3-7 copies as well as evidence of population differentiation. In strains with reliable gene annotations, copy number variation (CNV) and differential transposable element insertions distinguish one structurally distinct version of the Sdic region per strain. All 31 annotated copies featured protein-coding potential and, based on the protein variant encoded, were categorized into 13 paratypes differing in their 3' ends, with 3-5 paratypes coexisting in any strain examined. Despite widespread gene conversion, the only copy present in all strains has functionally diverged at both coding and regulatory levels under positive selection. Contrary to artificial tandem duplications of the Sdic region that resulted in increased male expression, CNV in cosmopolitan strains did not correlate with expression levels, likely as a result of differential genome modifier composition. Duplicating the region did not enhance sperm competitiveness, suggesting a fitness cost at high expression levels or a plateau effect. Beyond facilitating a minimally optimal expression level, Sdic CNV acts as a catalyst of protein and regulatory diversity, showcasing a possible evolutionary path recently formed tandem multigene families can follow toward long-term consolidation in eukaryotic genomes.

First annotated draft genomes of nonmarine ostracods (Ostracoda, Crustacea) with different reproductive modes

Ostracods are one of the oldest crustacean groups with an excellent fossil record and high importance for phylogenetic analyses but genome resources for this class are still lacking. We have successfully assembled and annotated the first reference genomes for three species of nonmarine ostracods; two with obligate sexual reproduction (Cyprideis torosa and Notodromas monacha) and the putative ancient asexual Darwinula stevensoni. This kind of genomic research has so far been impeded by the small size of most ostracods and the absence of genetic resources such as linkage maps or BAC libraries that were available for other crustaceans. For genome assembly, we used an Illumina-based sequencing technology, resulting in assemblies of similar sizes for the three species (335-382 Mb) and with scaffold numbers and their N50 (19-56 kb) in the same orders of magnitude. Gene annotations were guided by transcriptome data from each species. The three assemblies are relatively complete with BUSCO scores of 92-96. The number of predicted genes (13,771-17,776) is in the same range as Branchiopoda genomes but lower than in most malacostracan genomes. These three reference genomes from nonmarine ostracods provide the urgently needed basis to further develop ostracods as models for evolutionary and ecological research.

Evolution of genome structure in the Drosophila simulans species complex

The rapid evolution of repetitive DNA sequences, including satellite DNA, tandem duplications, and transposable elements, underlies phenotypic evolution and contributes to hybrid incompatibilities between species. However, repetitive genomic regions are fragmented and misassembled in most contemporary genome assemblies. We generated highly contiguous de novo reference genomes for the Drosophila simulans species complex (D. simulans, D. mauritiana, and D. sechellia), which speciated ∼250,000 yr ago. Our assemblies are comparable in contiguity and accuracy to the current D. melanogaster genome, allowing us to directly compare repetitive sequences between these four species. We find that at least 15% of the D. simulans complex species genomes fail to align uniquely to D. melanogaster owing to structural divergence-twice the number of single-nucleotide substitutions. We also find rapid turnover of satellite DNA and extensive structural divergence in heterochromatic regions, whereas the euchromatic gene content is mostly conserved. Despite the overall preservation of gene synteny, euchromatin in each species has been shaped by clade- and species-specific inversions, transposable elements, expansions and contractions of satellite and tRNA tandem arrays, and gene duplications. We also find rapid divergence among Y-linked genes, including copy number variation and recent gene duplications from autosomes. Our assemblies provide a valuable resource for studying genome evolution and its consequences for phenotypic evolution in these genetic model species.

Hidden genomic features of an invasive malaria vector, Anopheles stephensi, revealed by a chromosome-level genome assembly

BACKGROUND

The mosquito Anopheles stephensi is a vector of urban malaria in Asia that recently invaded Africa. Studying the genetic basis of vectorial capacity and engineering genetic interventions are both impeded by limitations of a vector's genome assembly. The existing assemblies of An. stephensi are draft-quality and contain thousands of sequence gaps, potentially missing genetic elements important for its biology and evolution.

RESULTS

To access previously intractable genomic regions, we generated a reference-grade genome assembly and full transcript annotations that achieve a new standard for reference genomes of disease vectors. Here, we report novel species-specific transposable element (TE) families and insertions in functional genetic elements, demonstrating the widespread role of TEs in genome evolution and phenotypic variation. We discovered 29 previously hidden members of insecticide resistance genes, uncovering new candidate genetic elements for the widespread insecticide resistance observed in An. stephensi. We identified 2.4 Mb of the Y chromosome and seven new male-linked gene candidates, representing the most extensive coverage of the Y chromosome in any mosquito. By tracking full-length mRNA for > 15 days following blood feeding, we discover distinct roles of previously uncharacterized genes in blood metabolism and female reproduction. The Y-linked heterochromatin landscape reveals extensive accumulation of long-terminal repeat retrotransposons throughout the evolution and degeneration of this chromosome. Finally, we identify a novel Y-linked putative transcription factor that is expressed constitutively throughout male development and adulthood, suggesting an important role.

CONCLUSION

Collectively, these results and resources underscore the significance of previously hidden genomic elements in the biology of malaria mosquitoes and will accelerate the development of genetic control strategies of malaria transmission.

Hybrid sequencing resolves two germline ultra-complex chromosomal rearrangements consisting of 137 breakpoint junctions in a single carrier

Chromoanagenesis is a genomic event responsible for the formation of complex structural chromosomal rearrangements (CCRs). Germline chromoanagenesis is rare and the majority of reported cases are associated with an affected phenotype. Here, we report a healthy female carrying two de novo CCRs involving chromosomes 4, 19, 21 and X and chromosomes 7 and 11, respectively, with a total of 137 breakpoint junctions (BPJs). We characterized the CCRs using a hybrid-sequencing approach, combining short-read sequencing, nanopore sequencing, and optical mapping. The results were validated using multiple cytogenetic methods, including fluorescence in situ hybridization, spectral karyotyping, and Sanger sequencing. We identified 137 BPJs, which to our knowledge is the highest number of reported breakpoint junctions in germline chromoanagenesis. We also performed a statistical assessment of the positioning of the breakpoints, revealing a significant enrichment of BPJ-affecting genes (96 intragenic BPJs, 26 genes, p < 0.0001), indicating that the CCRs formed during active transcription of these genes. In addition, we find that the DNA fragments are unevenly and non-randomly distributed across the derivative chromosomes indicating a multistep process of scattering and re-joining of DNA fragments. In summary, we report a new maximum number of BPJs (137) in germline chromoanagenesis. We also show that a hybrid sequencing approach is necessary for the correct characterization of complex CCRs. Through in-depth statistical assessment, it was found that the CCRs most likely was formed through an event resembling chromoplexy—a catastrophic event caused by erroneous transcription factor binding.

The Beginning of the End: A Chromosomal Assembly of the New World Malaria Mosquito Ends with a Novel Telomere

Chromosome level assemblies are accumulating in various taxonomic groups including mosquitoes. However, even in the few reference-quality mosquito assemblies, a significant portion of the heterochromatic regions including telomeres remain unresolved. Here we produce a de novo assembly of the New World malaria mosquito, Anopheles albimanus by integrating Oxford Nanopore sequencing, Illumina, Hi-C and optical mapping. This 172.6 Mbps female assembly, which we call AalbS3, is obtained by scaffolding polished large contigs (contig N50 = 13.7 Mbps) into three chromosomes. All chromosome arms end with telomeric repeats, which is the first in mosquito assemblies and represents a significant step toward the completion of a genome assembly. These telomeres consist of tandem repeats of a novel 30-32 bp Telomeric Repeat Unit (TRU) and are confirmed by analyzing the termini of long reads and through both chromosomal in situ hybridization and a Bal31 sensitivity assay. The AalbS3 assembly included previously uncharacterized centromeric and rDNA clusters and more than doubled the content of transposable elements and other repetitive sequences. This telomere-to-telomere assembly, although still containing gaps, represents a significant step toward resolving biologically important but previously hidden genomic components. The comparison of different scaffolding methods will also inform future efforts to obtain reference-quality genomes for other mosquito species.

The reuse of public datasets in the life sciences: potential risks and rewards

The 'big data' revolution has enabled novel types of analyses in the life sciences, facilitated by public sharing and reuse of datasets. Here, we review the prodigious potential of reusing publicly available datasets and the associated challenges, limitations and risks. Possible solutions to issues and research integrity considerations are also discussed. Due to the prominence, abundance and wide distribution of sequencing data, we focus on the reuse of publicly available sequence datasets. We define 'successful reuse' as the use of previously published data to enable novel scientific findings. By using selected examples of successful reuse from different disciplines, we illustrate the enormous potential of the practice, while acknowledging the respective limitations and risks. A checklist to determine the reuse value and potential of a particular dataset is also provided. The open discussion of data reuse and the establishment of this practice as a norm has the potential to benefit all stakeholders in the life sciences.

T-lex3: an accurate tool to genotype and estimate population frequencies of transposable elements using the latest short-read whole genome sequencing data

Motivation

Transposable elements (TEs) constitute a significant proportion of the majority of genomes sequenced to date. TEs are responsible for a considerable fraction of the genetic variation within and among species. Accurate genotyping of TEs in genomes is therefore crucial for a complete identification of the genetic differences among individuals, populations and species.

Results

In this work, we present a new version of T-lex, a computational pipeline that accurately genotypes and estimates the population frequencies of reference TE insertions using short-read high-throughput sequencing data. In this new version, we have re-designed the T-lex algorithm to integrate the BWA-MEM short-read aligner, which is one of the most accurate short-read mappers and can be launched on longer short-reads (e.g. reads >150 bp). We have added new filtering steps to increase the accuracy of the genotyping, and new parameters that allow the user to control both the minimum and maximum number of reads, and the minimum number of strains to genotype a TE insertion. We also showed for the first time that T-lex3 provides accurate TE calls in a plant genome.

Availability and implementation

To test the accuracy of T-lex3, we called 1630 individual TE insertions in Drosophila melanogaster, 1600 individual TE insertions in humans, and 3067 individual TE insertions in the rice genome. We showed that this new version of T-lex is a broadly applicable and accurate tool for genotyping and estimating TE frequencies in organisms with different genome sizes and different TE contents. T-lex3 is available at Github: https://github.com/GonzalezLab/T-lex3.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

A Transposon Story: From TE Content to TE Dynamic Invasion of Drosophila Genomes Using the Single-Molecule Sequencing Technology from Oxford Nanopore

Transposable elements (TEs) are the main components of genomes. However, due to their repetitive nature, they are very difficult to study using data obtained with short-read sequencing technologies. Here, we describe an efficient pipeline to accurately recover TE insertion (TEI) sites and sequences from long reads obtained by Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) sequencing. With this pipeline, we could precisely describe the landscapes of the most recent TEIs in wild-type strains of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. Their comparison suggests that this subset of TE sequences is more similar than previously thought in these two species. The chromosome assemblies obtained using this pipeline also allowed recovering piRNA cluster sequences, which was impossible using short-read sequencing. Finally, we used our pipeline to analyze ONT sequencing data from a D. melanogaster unstable line in which LTR transposition was derepressed for 73 successive generations. We could rely on single reads to identify new insertions with intact target site duplications. Moreover, the detailed analysis of TEIs in the wild-type strains and the unstable line did not support the trap model claiming that piRNA clusters are hotspots of TE insertions.

Two Synthetic 18-Way Outcrossed Populations of Diploid Budding Yeast with Utility for Complex Trait Dissection

Advanced-generation multiparent populations (MPPs) are a valuable tool for dissecting complex traits, having more power than genome-wide association studies to detect rare variants and higher resolution than F2 linkage mapping. To extend the advantages of MPPs in budding yeast, we describe the creation and characterization of two outbred MPPs derived from 18 genetically diverse founding strains. We carried out de novo assemblies of the genomes of the 18 founder strains, such that virtually all variation segregating between these strains is known, and represented those assemblies as Santa Cruz Genome Browser tracks. We discovered complex patterns of structural variation segregating among the founders, including a large deletion within the vacuolar ATPase VMA1, several different deletions within the osmosensor MSB2, a series of deletions and insertions at PRM7 and the adjacent BSC1, as well as copy number variation at the dehydrogenase ALD2 Resequenced haploid recombinant clones from the two MPPs have a median unrecombined block size of 66 kb, demonstrating that the population is highly recombined. We pool-sequenced the two MPPs to 3270× and 2226× coverage and demonstrated that we can accurately estimate local haplotype frequencies using pooled data. We further downsampled the pool-sequenced data to ∼20-40× and showed that local haplotype frequency estimates remained accurate, with median error rates 0.8 and 0.6% at 20× and 40×, respectively. Haplotypes frequencies are estimated much more accurately than SNP frequencies obtained directly from the same data. Deep sequencing of the two populations revealed that 10 or more founders are present at a detectable frequency for > 98% of the genome, validating the utility of this resource for the exploration of the role of standing variation in the architecture of complex traits.

Comparative Cytology of Female Meiosis I Among Drosophila Species

The physical connections established by recombination are normally sufficient to ensure proper chromosome segregation during female Meiosis I. However, nonexchange chromosomes (such as the Muller F element or "dot" chromosome in D. melanogaster) can still segregate accurately because they remain connected by heterochromatic tethers. A recent study examined female meiosis in the closely related species D. melanogaster and D. simulans, and found a nearly twofold difference in the mean distance the obligately nonexchange dot chromosomes were separated during Prometaphase. That study proposed two speculative hypotheses for this difference, the first being the amount of heterochromatin in each species, and the second being the species' differing tolerance for common inversions in natural populations. We tested these hypotheses by examining female meiosis in 12 additional Drosophila species. While neither hypothesis had significant support, we did see 10-fold variation in dot chromosome sizes, and fivefold variation in the frequency of chromosomes out on the spindle, which were both significantly correlated with chromosome separation distances. In addition to demonstrating that heterochromatin abundance changes chromosome behavior, this implies that the duration of Prometaphase chromosome movements must be proportional to the size of the F element in these species. Additionally, we examined D. willistoni, a species that lacks a free dot chromosome. We observed that chromosomes still moved out on the meiotic spindle, and the F element was always positioned closest to the spindle poles. This result is consistent with models where one role of the dot chromosomes is to help organize the meiotic spindle.

Nanopore sequencing and Hi-C scaffolding provide insight into the evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements and piRNA production in wild strains of Drosophila melanogaster

Illumina sequencing has allowed for population-level surveys of transposable element (TE) polymorphism via split alignment approaches, which has provided important insight into the population dynamics of TEs. However, such approaches are not able to identify insertions of uncharacterized TEs, nor can they assemble the full sequence of inserted elements. Here, we use nanopore sequencing and Hi-C scaffolding to produce de novo genome assemblies for two wild strains of Drosophila melanogaster from the Drosophila Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP). Ovarian piRNA populations and Illumina split-read TE insertion profiles have been previously produced for both strains. We find that nanopore sequencing with Hi-C scaffolding produces highly contiguous, chromosome-length scaffolds, and we identify hundreds of TE insertions that were missed by Illumina-based methods, including a novel micropia-like element that has recently invaded the DGRP population. We also find hundreds of piRNA-producing loci that are specific to each strain. Some of these loci are created by strain-specific TE insertions, while others appear to be epigenetically controlled. Our results suggest that Illumina approaches reveal only a portion of the repetitive sequence landscape of eukaryotic genomes and that population-level resequencing using long reads is likely to provide novel insight into the evolutionary dynamics of repetitive elements.

Chromosome-Level Assembly of Drosophila bifasciata Reveals Important Karyotypic Transition of the X Chromosome

The Drosophila obscura species group is one of the most studied clades of Drosophila and harbors multiple distinct karyotypes. Here we present a de novo genome assembly and annotation of D. bifasciata, a species which represents an important subgroup for which no high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly currently exists. We combined long-read sequencing (Nanopore) and Hi-C scaffolding to achieve a highly contiguous genome assembly approximately 193 Mb in size, with repetitive elements constituting 30.1% of the total length. Drosophila bifasciata harbors four large metacentric chromosomes and the small dot, and our assembly contains each chromosome in a single scaffold, including the highly repetitive pericentromeres, which were largely composed of Jockey and Gypsy transposable elements. We annotated a total of 12,821 protein-coding genes and comparisons of synteny with D. athabasca orthologs show that the large metacentric pericentromeric regions of multiple chromosomes are conserved between these species. Importantly, Muller A (X chromosome) was found to be metacentric in D. bifasciata and the pericentromeric region appears homologous to the pericentromeric region of the fused Muller A-AD (XL and XR) of pseudoobscura/affinis subgroup species. Our finding suggests a metacentric ancestral X fused to a telocentric Muller D and created the large neo-X (Muller A-AD) chromosome ∼15 MYA. We also confirm the fusion of Muller C and D in D. bifasciata and show that it likely involved a centromere-centromere fusion.

Molecular Approaches for Low-Cost Point-of-Care Pathogen Detection in Agriculture and Forestry

Early detection of plant diseases is a crucial factor to prevent or limit the spread of a rising infection that could cause significant economic loss. Detection test on plant diseases in the laboratory can be laborious, time consuming, expensive, and normally requires specific technical expertise. Moreover, in the developing countries, it is often difficult to find laboratories equipped for this kind of analysis. Therefore, in the past years, a high effort has been made for the development of fast, specific, sensitive, and cost-effective tests that can be successfully used in plant pathology directly in the field by low-specialized personnel using minimal equipment. Nucleic acid-based methods have proven to be a good choice for the development of detection tools in several fields, such as human/animal health, food safety, and water analysis, and their application in plant pathogen detection is becoming more and more common. In the present review, the more recent nucleic acid-based protocols for point-of-care (POC) plant pathogen detection and identification are described and analyzed. All these methods have a high potential for early detection of destructive diseases in agriculture and forestry, they should help make molecular detection for plant pathogens accessible to anyone, anywhere, and at any time. We do not suggest that on-site methods should replace lab testing completely, which remains crucial for more complex researches, such as identification and classification of new pathogens or the study of plant defense mechanisms. Instead, POC analysis can provide a useful, fast, and efficient preliminary on-site screening that is crucial in the struggle against plant pathogens.

Structural variants exhibit widespread allelic heterogeneity and shape variation in complex traits

It has been hypothesized that individually-rare hidden structural variants (SVs) could account for a significant fraction of variation in complex traits. Here we identified more than 20,000 euchromatic SVs from 14 Drosophila melanogaster genome assemblies, of which ~40% are invisible to high specificity short-read genotyping approaches. SVs are common, with 31.5% of diploid individuals harboring a SV in genes larger than 5kb, and 24% harboring multiple SVs in genes larger than 10kb. SV minor allele frequencies are rarer than amino acid polymorphisms, suggesting that SVs are more deleterious. We show that a number of functionally important genes harbor previously hidden structural variants likely to affect complex phenotypes. Furthermore, SVs are overrepresented in candidate genes associated with quantitative trait loci mapped using the Drosophila Synthetic Population Resource. We conclude that SVs are ubiquitous, frequently constitute a heterogeneous allelic series, and can act as rare alleles of large effect.

Assessment of low-coverage nanopore long read sequencing for SNP genotyping in doubled haploid canola (Brassica napus L.)

Despite the high accuracy of short read sequencing (SRS), there are still issues with attaining accurate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotypes at low sequencing coverage and in highly duplicated genomes due to misalignment. Long read sequencing (LRS) systems, including the Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) minION, have become popular options for de novo genome assembly and structural variant characterisation. The current high error rate often requires substantial post-sequencing correction and would appear to prevent the adoption of this system for SNP genotyping, but nanopore sequencing errors are largely random. Using low coverage ONT minION sequencing for genotyping of pre-validated SNP loci was examined in 9 canola doubled haploids. The minION genotypes were compared to the Illumina sequences to determine the extent and nature of genotype discrepancies between the two systems. The significant increase in read length improved alignment to the genome and the absence of classical SRS biases results in a more even representation of the genome. Sequencing errors are present, primarily in the form of heterozygous genotypes, which can be removed in completely homozygous backgrounds but requires more advanced bioinformatics in heterozygous genomes. Developments in this technology are promising for routine genotyping in the future.

The Impact of Centromeres on Spatial Genome Architecture

The development of new technologies and experimental techniques is enabling researchers to see what was once unable to be seen. For example, the centromere was first seen as the mediator between spindle fiber and chromosome during mitosis and meiosis. Although this continues to be its most prominent role, we now know that the centromere functions beyond cellular division with important roles in genome organization and chromatin regulation. Here we aim to share the structures and functions of centromeres in various organisms beginning with the diversity of their DNA sequence anatomies. We zoom out to describe their position in the nucleus and ultimately detail the different ways they contribute to genome organization and regulation at the spatial level.