High quality genome assemblies reveal evolutionary dynamics of repetitive DNA and structural rearrangements in the Drosophila virilis sub-group.

ABSTRACT: High-quality genome assemblies across a range of non-traditional model organisms can accelerate the discovery of novel aspects of genome evolution. The Drosophila virilis group has several attributes that distinguish it from more highly studied species in the Drosophila genus, such as an unusual abundance of repetitive elements and extensive karyotype evolution, in addition to being an attractive model for speciation genetics. Here we used long-read sequencing to assemble five genomes of three virilis group species and characterized sequence and structural divergence and repetitive DNA evolution. We find that our contiguous genome assemblies allow characterization of chromosomal arrangements with ease and can facilitate analysis of inversion breakpoints. We also leverage a sm

SUBMITTER: Flynn JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10462019 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature