AUTHOR=Guan De-Long , Zhao Lu , Li Yufei , Xing Lian-Xi , Huang Huateng , Xu Sheng-Quan 

TITLE=Genome assembly of Luehdorfia taibai, an endangered butterfly endemic to Qinling Moutains in China with extremely small populations

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.955246

DOI=10.3389/fevo.2022.955246

ISSN=2296-701X

ABSTRACT=<p>Conservation genomic resources over the past decade has drastically improved, since genomes can be used to predict diverse parameters vital to conservation management. <italic>Luehdorfia taibai</italic> is an endemic butterfly only found in restricted aeras in middle-west China and is critically endangered. It was classfied as a vunerlable (VN) species in the “China species red list.” Here we generated 34.38 Gb of raw DNA sequencing reads and obtained a high-qualified draft genome assembly of <italic>L. taibai</italic>. The final genome is ~683.3 Mb, with contig N50 size of 10.19 Mb. Further, 98.6% of single-copy orthologous genes have been recovered by BUSCO. An estimated 42.34% of the genome of <italic>L. taibai</italic> consists of repetitive elements. Combined with gene prediction and transcriptome sequencing, genome annotation produced 15,968 protein-coding genes. Additionally, a nearly 1:1 orthology ratio of syntenic blocks between <italic>L. taibai</italic> and its closest genome <italic>Luehdorfia chinensis</italic> suggested that the genome structures have not changed much after speciation. The genome of <italic>L. taibai</italic> have not undergone a whole genome duplication event. Population dynamics analyses indicates that <italic>L. taibai</italic> has an extremely low heterozygosity of 0.057%, and its population size has declined dramatically over the past 10 thousand years. Our study describes a draft genome assembly of the <italic>L. taibai</italic>, the first implication of this species. We consider the globally overexploited of the host plants is not the main reason to threaten <italic>L. taibai</italic>. The genome will provide advice for the conservation to the economically important <italic>Luehdorfia</italic> lineage and this specific species.</p>