Editorial

Abstract

There are some 200 organisms whose genomic sequences have been determined. Roughly 10% of those organisms are insects and this special issue of Insect Molecular Biology marks the publication of the genome sequence of the jewel wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, and its close relatives N. giraulti and N. longicornis. Although the costs and efforts associated with obtaining genomic DNA sequence data continues to decline as new technologies emerge, the value of these data remains high and will continue to do so in the future. Insect Molecular Biology is committed to serving the interests of the insect biological research community and believes there is great value in aggregating related research such as you will find in this special issue on the genome of Nasonia. Although demanding considerable effort from authors, referees, editors and publisher, with adequate planning and leadership special issues can be successfully assembled such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the end product benefits all concerned. We would like to encourage other insect sequencing consortia that are possibly interested in aggregating the research results of their community of genome researchers in order to maximize the impact of their sequencing and analysis efforts to contact us about publication in Insect Molecular Biology. Our experience in publishing special issues devoted to single-organism genomics (honeybee, 2009; Nasonia, 2010; aphid, 2010) will help to ensure it is a successful venture.