Nuclear and mitochondrial genomic resources for the meltwater stonefly (Plecoptera: Nemouridae), Lednia tumana (Ricker, 1952)

David W Weisrock,Joanna L Kelley,Scott Hotaling

doi:10.1080/01650424.2019.1639764

David W Weisrock, Joanna L Kelley + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/01650424.2019.1639764

Copy DOI

Abstract

With more than 3,700 described species, stoneflies (Order Plecoptera) are an important component of global aquatic biodiversity. The meltwater stonefly Lednia tumana (Ricker, 1952) is endemic to alpine streams of Glacier National Park and has been petitioned for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to climate change-induced loss of alpine glaciers and snowfields. Here, we present de novo assemblies of the nuclear (∼520 million base pairs [bp]) and mitochondrial (15,014-bp) genomes for L. tumana. The L. tumana (Family Nemouridae) nuclear genome is the most complete stonefly genome reported to date, with ∼71% of genes present in complete form and more than 4,600 contigs longer than 10-kilobases (kb). The L. tumana mitochondrial genome is the second for the family Nemouridae and the first from North America. Together, both genomes represent important foundational resources, setting the stage for future efforts to understand the evolution of L. tumana, stoneflies, and aquatic insects worldwide.

Highlights

Stoneflies are a diverse, globally distributed group of hemimetabolous insects that diverged from their closest relatives (e.g., Orthoptera, Dermaptera, Zoraptera) at least 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period (Béthoux, Cui, Kondratieff, Stark, and Ren 2011).With more than 3,700 described species, stoneflies account for a substantial portion of freshwater biodiversity (DeWalt, Kondratieff, and Sandberg 2015)
We present an assembly of the nuclear genome for L. tumana, the most complete nuclear genome for the order Plecoptera reported to date
We present a nearly complete mitochondrial genome assembly for L. tumana, the fourth for the stonefly family Nemouridae after two previous studies (Chen and Du 2017; Cao, Wang, Huang, and Li 2019)

Summary

Introduction

Stoneflies are a diverse, globally distributed group of hemimetabolous insects that diverged from their closest relatives (e.g., Orthoptera, Dermaptera, Zoraptera) at least 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period (Béthoux, Cui, Kondratieff, Stark, and Ren 2011).With more than 3,700 described species, stoneflies account for a substantial portion of freshwater biodiversity (DeWalt, Kondratieff, and Sandberg 2015). Stoneflies are a diverse, globally distributed group of hemimetabolous insects that diverged from their closest relatives (e.g., Orthoptera, Dermaptera, Zoraptera) at least 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous Period (Béthoux, Cui, Kondratieff, Stark, and Ren 2011). The meltwater stonefly, Lednia tumana (Ricker, 1952; Plecoptera: Nemouridae), resides in alpine streams of Glacier. Lednia tumana is one of four extant species in the genus Lednia which all exhibit alpine, cold-water distributions in western North America (Baumann and Kondratieff 2010; Baumann and Call 2012). The recent evolutionary history of L. tumana is closely tied to glacier dynamics with present-day genetic clusters arising in parallel with ice sheet recession at the end of the Pleistocene (~20,000 years ago, Hotaling et al 2018). Genetic evidence has highlighted a possible loss of mitochondrial genetic diversity for the species on even more recent, decadal timescales (Jordan et al 2016)

Methods

Results

Conclusion