A highly-contiguous genome assembly of the Eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus, provides insight into a major forest pest.

ABSTRACT: Conifer-feeding bark beetles are important herbivores and decomposers in forest ecosystems. These species complete their life cycle in nutritionally poor substrates and some can kill enormous numbers of trees during population outbreaks. The Eurasian spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) can destroy >100 million m³ of spruce in a single year. We report a 236.8 Mb I. typographus genome assembly using PacBio long-read sequencing. The final phased assembly has a contig N₅₀ of 6.65 Mb in 272 contigs and is predicted to contain 23,923 protein-coding genes. We reveal expanded gene families associated with plant cell wall degradation, including pectinases, aspartyl proteases, and glycosyl hydrolases. This genome sequence from the genus Ips provides timely resources to address

SUBMITTER: Powell D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8429705 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature