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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.09.29.318477

Chromosome-level genome assemblies of the malaria vectors Anopheles coluzzii and Anopheles arabiensis

Zamyatin, A.·Avdeyev, P.·Liang, J.·Sharma, A.·Chen, C.·Lukyanchikova, V.·Alexeev, N.·Tu, Z.·Alekseyev, M. A.·Sharakhov, I. V.
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Abstract

BackgroundAnopheles coluzzii and An. arabiensis belong to the An. gambiae complex and are among the major malaria vectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, chromosome-level reference genome assemblies are still lacking for these medically important mosquito species. FindingsIn this study, we produced de novo chromosome-level genome assemblies for An. coluzzii and An. arabiensis using the long-read Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology and the Hi-C scaffolding approach. We obtained 273.4 Mbp and 256.8 Mbp of the total assemblies for An. coluzzii and An. arabiensis, respectively. Each assembly consists of three chromosome-scale scaffolds (X, 2, 3), complete mitochondrion, and unordered contigs identified as autosomal pericentromeric DNA, X pericentromeric DNA, and Y sequences. Comparison of these assemblies with the existing assemblies for these species demonstrated that we obtained improved reference-quality genomes. The new assemblies allowed us to identify genomiccoordinates for the breakpoint regions of fixed and polymorphic chromosomal inversions in An. coluzzii and An. arabiensis. ConclusionThe new chromosome-level assemblies will facilitate functional and population genomic studies in An. coluzzii and An. arabiensis. The presented assembly pipeline will accelerate progress toward creating high-quality genome references for other disease vectors.

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Zamyatin, A., Avdeyev, P., Liang, J., Sharma, A., Chen, C., Lukyanchikova, V., Alexeev, N., Tu, Z., Alekseyev, M. A., Sharakhov, I. V.. 2020-09-29. Chromosome-level genome assemblies of the malaria vectors Anopheles coluzzii and Anopheles arabiensis. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.29.318477

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