THE GENOME SEQUENCING AND TRANSCRIPTOMIC ASSEMBLY OF THE PARASITOID WASP MEGAPHRAGMA AMALPHITANUM (HYMENOPTERA: TRICHOGRAMMATIDAE)

Miniaturization of organisms is one of the most interesting evolutionary phenomena. This is a very common process, widely represented in multicellular organisms: invertebrates (nemertean, nematodes, brachiopods, mollusca, arachnids, and insects) and vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, birds, and even mammals). Miniaturization leads to a significant reduction in the body size and simplifying of some systems and organs without loss of species viability. The cell size reduce as well as genome and gene structure change during minitiaruzation. Typically, this complex evolutionary modification is associated with the occupation of ecological niches. Parasitoid wasp Megaphragma amalphitanum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) is considered one of the smallest insects described to date and therefore is attractive as an object for studying of genetic aspects of body size reduction during evolution. The whole genome sequencing of M. amalphitanum and subsequent genome annotation and transcriptome assembly allow us to understand how the genetic material changes during miniaturization in relation to the corresponding characteristics of the larger Hymenoptera species. Preliminary analysis showed that the genome size of the M. amalphitanum is 346 Mbp; the transcriptome size is 27.5 Mbp.

Hymenoptera, genome, transcriptome, Megaphragma amalphitanum, parasitoid wasp, miniaturization

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