A chromosome-level genome assembly of the spider mite Tetranychus piercei McGregor

Abstract

Despite the rapid advances in sequencing technology, limited genomic resources are currently available for phytophagous spider mites, which include many important agricultural pests. One of these pests is Tetranychus piercei (McGregor), a serious banana pest in East Asia exhibiting remarkable tolerance to high temperature. In this study, we assembled a high-quality genome of T. piercei using a combination of PacBio long reads and Illumina short reads sequencing. With the assistance of chromatin conformation capture technology, 99.9% of the contigs were anchored into three pseudochromosomes with a total size of 86.02 Mb. Repetitive elements, accounting for 14.16% of this genome (12.20 Mb), are predominantly composed of long-terminal repeats (30.7%). By combining evidence of ab initio prediction, transcripts, and homologous proteins, we annotated 11,881 protein-coding genes. Both the genome and proteins have high BUSCO completeness scores (>94%). This high-quality genome, along with reliable annotation, provides a valuable resource for investigating the high-temperature tolerance of this species and exploring the genomic basis that underlies the host range evolution of spider mites.

Small but mitey: long-read assembly of a streamlined mite genome from contaminated host plant sequencing data

“…This species is one of several agricultural pests sequenced and sheds light on pesticide resistance. Others include the false spider mite Brevipalpus yothersi Baker, 1949 (Navia et al 2019), a fruit pest in Asia Tetranychus piercei McGregor, 1950 (Chen et al 2024), the citrus red mite Panonychus citri (McGregor, 1916) (Yu et al 2021), and the redlegged earth mite Halotydeus destructor (Tucker, 1925) which is invasive in Australia (Thia et al 2023). Other mites such as Pyemotes zhonghuajia Yu, Zhang & He, 2010 have biocontrol potential (Song et al 2022) while the mechanisms of gall formation have been studied through Fragariocoptes setiger (Nalepa, 1894) (Klimov et al 2022).…”