Abstract
Whiteflies of the Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) cryptic species complex are among the most important agricultural insect pests in the world. These phloem-feeding insects can colonize over 1000 species of plants worldwide and inflict severe economic losses to crops, mainly through the transmission of pathogenic viruses. Surprisingly, there is very little genomic information about whiteflies. As a starting point to genome sequencing, we report a new estimation of the genome size of the B. tabaci B biotype or Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) population. Using an isogenic whitefly colony with over 6500 haploid male individuals for genomic DNA, three paired-end genomic libraries with insert sizes of ~300 bp, 500 bp and 1 Kb were constructed and sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 system. A total of ~50 billion base pairs of sequences were obtained from each library. K-mer analysis using these sequences revealed that the genome size of the whitefly was ~682.3 Mb. In addition, the flow cytometric analysis estimated the haploid genome size of the whitefly to be ~690 Mb. Considering the congruency between both estimation methods, we predict the haploid genome size of B. tabaci MEAM1 to be ~680–690 Mb. Our data provide a baseline for ongoing efforts to assemble and annotate the B. tabaci genome.
Highlights
Whiteflies are among the most important insect pests in the world, causing damage to agricultural, horticultural, and ornamental plants
Genomic DNA extracted from haploid male individuals derived from an isogenic colony of B. tabaci Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) was used to construct three paired-end libraries with insert sizes of approximately 300 bp, 500 bp and 1 Kb, respectively
Our results demonstrate that the estimated genome sizes of whiteflies using flow cytometry were highly reproducible
Summary
Whiteflies are among the most important insect pests in the world, causing damage to agricultural, horticultural, and ornamental plants. Among the over 1500 species of whiteflies that have been reported [1], Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) stands out by exhibiting a remarkable degree of plasticity in host range (over 1000 species) [2], environmental adaptation, insecticide resistance, fecundity, and ability to disperse, while attracting the attention of the agricultural community and scientists worldwide [3]. Protection and circulation in the whitefly is mediated, in part, by secreted factors from host endosymbionts [12,13,14,15,16]. Aside from understanding the fundamental genetics driving whitefly-endosymbiont-virus relationships, there is a significant importance for developing genetic and genomic resources for managing whiteflies and the viruses they transmit
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