Chromosomal-level genome assembly of golden birdwing Troides aeacus (Felder & Felder, 1860)

Hong Kong Biodiversity Genomics Consortium

doi:10.46471/gigabyte.122

Chromosomal-level genome assembly of golden birdwing Troides aeacus (Felder & Felder, 1860)

GigaByte. 2024 Apr 25:2024:gigabyte122. doi: 10.46471/gigabyte.122. eCollection 2024.

Author

Hong Kong Biodiversity Genomics Consortium

Collaborators

Hong Kong Biodiversity Genomics Consortium:
Jerome H L Hui¹, Ting Fung Chan², Leo Lai Chan³, Siu Gin Cheung⁴, Chi Chiu Cheang^{5

6}, James Kar-Hei Fang⁷, Juan Diego Gaitan-Espitia⁸, Stanley Chun Kwan Lau⁹, Yik Hei Sung^{10

11}, Chris Kong Chu Wong¹², Kevin Yuk-Lap Yip^{13

14}, Yingying Wei¹⁵, Wai Lok So¹, Wenyan Nong¹, Hydrogen Sui Fai Pun¹⁶, Wing Kwong Yau¹⁶, Colleen Yuk Lin Chiu¹⁶, Sammi Shan Shan Chan¹⁶, Kacy Ka Ling Man¹⁶, Ho Yin Yip¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
² School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution and Department of Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁵ Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁶ EcoEdu PEI, Charlottetown, PE, C1A 4B7, Canada.
⁷ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Research Institute for Future Food, and State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁸ The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁹ Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹⁰ Science Unit, Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹¹ School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Suffolk, Ipswich, IP4 1QJ, UK.
¹² Croucher Institute for Environmental Sciences, and Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹³ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹⁴ Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Statistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
¹⁶ Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve, Hong Kong SAR, China.

Abstract

The golden birdwing Troides aeacus (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae), a significant species in Asia, faces habitat loss due to urbanization and human activities, necessitating its protection. However, the lack of genomic resources hinders our understanding of their biology and diversity, and impedes our conservation efforts based on genetic information or markers. Here, we present the first chromosomal-level genome assembly of T. aeacus using PacBio SMRT and Omni-C scaffolding technologies. The assembled genome (351 Mb) contains 98.94% of the sequences anchored to 30 pseudo-molecules. The genome assembly has high sequence continuity with contig length N50 = 11.67 Mb and L50 = 14, and scaffold length N50 = 12.2 Mb and L50 = 13. A total of 24,946 protein-coding genes were predicted, with high BUSCO score completeness (98.8% and 94.7% of genome and proteome BUSCO, respectively. This genome offers a significant resource for understanding the swallowtail butterfly biology and carrying out its conservation.

Grants and funding

This work was funded and supported by the Hong Kong Research Grant Council Collaborative Research Fund (C4015-20EF), CUHK Strategic Seed Funding for Collaborative Research Scheme (3133356), and CUHK Group Research Scheme (3110154).