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. 2024 Oct 16;11(1):1139.
doi: 10.1038/s41597-024-03783-2.

A near chromosome-level genome assembly of a ghost moth (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae)

Yi-Ming Weng  1   2 , Isabel Lopez-Cacacho  1 , Bert Foquet  1 , Jose I Martinez  1 , David Plotkin  1 , Andrei Sourakov  1 , Paul B Frandsen  3 , Akito Y Kawahara  4
Affiliations

A near chromosome-level genome assembly of a ghost moth (Lepidoptera, Hepialidae)

Yi-Ming Weng et al. Sci Data. .

Abstract

Ghost moths are an unusual family of primitive moths (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae) known for their large body size and crepuscular adult activity. These moths represent an ancient lineage, frequently have soil dwelling larvae, and are adapted to high elevations, deserts, and other extreme environments. Despite being rather speciose with more than 700 species, there is a dearth of genomic resources for the family. Here, we present the first high quality, publicly available hepialid genome, generated from an Andean species of ghost moth, Druceiella hillmani. Our genome assembly has a length of 2,586 Mbp with contig N50 of 28.1 Mb and N50 of 29, and BUSCO completeness of 97.1%, making it one of the largest genomes in the order Lepidoptera. Our assembly is a vital resource for future research on ghost moth genomics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(a) Male habitus of Druceiella hillmani (Hepialidae), this specimen was sampled to construct the genome in the present study (b) Dorsal (right) and ventral (left) views of male tergum VIII and genitalia (left) of the sequenced sample.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Comparison of genome sizes in 548 species of Lepidoptera. Genome assemblies for this analysis were chosen based on a BUSCO completeness >80% and duplication rate <5%. Box plots represent the mean genome size across 21 superfamilies within Lepidoptera. The genome of Druceiella hillmani (second from left) was among the largest of the 548 available high-quality Lepidoptera genomes that were compared.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Gene map of coding gene blast results against the RefSeq non-redundant (nr) protein database from NCBI. The best hit (defined by lowest e-value) was selected for each gene, and the order of the corresponding species was mapped to the contigs. Most genes had their best blast hit to lepidopteran species, and no contig was found to harbor genes dominantly from a different order than Lepidoptera.
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