Abstract
Mylabris aulica is a widely distributed blister beetle of the Meloidae family. It has the ability to synthesize a potent defensive secretion that includes cantharidin, a toxic compound used to treat many major illnesses. However, owing to the lack of genetic studies on cantharidin biosynthesis in M. aulica, the commercial use of this species is less extensive than that of other blister beetle species in China. This study reports a draft assembly and possible genes and pathways related to cantharidin biosynthesis for the M. aulica blister beetle using nanopore sequencing data. The draft genome assembly size was 288.5 Mb with a 467.8 Kb N50, and a repeat content of 50.62%. An integrated gene finding pipeline performed for assembly obtained 16,500 protein coding genes. Benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs assessment showed that this gene set included 94.4% complete Insecta universal single-copy orthologs. Over 99% of these genes were assigned functional annotations in the gene ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, or Genbank non-redundant databases. Comparative genomic analysis showed that the completeness and continuity of our assembly was better than those of Hycleus cichorii and Hycleus phaleratus blister beetle genomes. The analysis of homologous orthologous genes and inference from evolutionary history imply that the Mylabris and Hycleus genera are genetically close, have a similar genetic background, and have differentiated within one million years. This M. aulica genome assembly provides a valuable resource for future blister beetle studies and will contribute to cantharidin biosynthesis.
Highlights
Cantharidin (C10H12O4, CTD) is a monoterpene chemical compound produced by some species of the Meloidae family from Coleoptera, commonly known as blister beetles or Spanish flies (Crowson, 1970; Carrel et al, 1993; Karras et al, 1996; Tagwireyi et al, 2000; Jiang et al, 2019)
The ability to synthesize multiple bioactive substances, especially CTD, is an interesting and attractive biological mechanism in blister beetles; genomics research is highly significant in the study of CTD biosynthesis
This study provides the first M. aulica genome with high continuity and integrity and performs preliminary comparative genomic analyses based on this genome
Summary
Cantharidin (C10H12O4, CTD) is a monoterpene chemical compound produced by some species of the Meloidae family from Coleoptera, commonly known as blister beetles or Spanish flies (Crowson, 1970; Carrel et al, 1993; Karras et al, 1996; Tagwireyi et al, 2000; Jiang et al, 2019). According to the transcriptome analysis of Mylabris cichorii, another blister beetle widely used in clinical treatment, the mevalonate (MVA) pathway and juvenile hormone biosynthesis may contribute to CTD biosynthesis (Huang et al, 2016) These findings provide a references for the experimental study of biosynthetic pathway mechanisms in different meloid beetles (Yin and Jin, 2010; Lu et al, 2016; Huang et al, 2016), the whole genome data required to study the genetic basis of the entire process remains unavailable (Wu et al, 2018). Mylabris aulica is a commonly distributed blister beetle with a large population in inner-Mongolia, China, and the same ability to produce CTD as other blister beetles; this species has great research potential as a prospect to obtain natural CTD This species has been utilized for medical purposes, but not for commercial trade (Carrel et al, 1986)
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