Comparative analysis of wasp genomes sheds light on the evolution of Hymenoptera and parasitoidism


Updated: March 16, 2014

Please contact Oliver and Masatsugu about potential collaborations.

Aims

Characterization of the genome of the parasitoid wood wasp (Orussus abietinus), and comparative analysis with the genomes of the other Hymenoptera, including those sequenced within i5K and in particular that of turnip sawfly (Athalia rosae).

Selling point

What changes in the genome are correlated with the evolution of parasitoidism – an extremely successful mode of life that likely triggered the enormous species diversification in Hymenoptera? Pathways of particular interest are: venoms, digestion enzymes, immune and environmental response (incl. RNAi pathway evolution), and olfactory receptor proteins, regulatory non-coding RNAs, sex determination.

Categories for gene annotation and comparative analyses

Genome sequencing and assembly

Stephen Richards and his great team at Baylor (confirmed)

Assembly quality assessment

Malte Petersen, Jeanne Willbrandt, Alexander Donath, Oliver Niehuis (Bonn group; all confirmed)

Annotation lead curator

Monica Munoz-Torres (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; confirmed)

Early developmental genes

Monica Munoz-Torres (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; confirmed), Erich Bornberg-Bauer group (University of Münster; contacted), Jeremy Lynch (University of Illinois; confirmed; specific interest in mesoderm, ectoderm, and extraembryonic markers, and germline genes), Peter Dearden (University of Otago; confirmed; specific interest in genes involved in segmentation, axis formation and Notch signaling)

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs)

Jeremy Lynch (University of Illinois; confirmed)

Epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway

Jeremy Lynch (University of Illinois; confirmed)

Sex determination genes

Elzemiek Geuverink and Leo Beukeboom (University of Groningen; confirmed), Megumi Sumitani, Masatsugu Hatakeyama (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan; confirmed), Daisuke S. Yamamoto (Jichi Medical University, Japan; confirmed)

Silk protein genes

Megumi Sumitani, Masatsugu Hatakeyama (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan; confirmed), Daisuke S. Yamamoto (Jichi Medical University, Japan; confirmed)

Methylation toolkit genes and GC content

Peter Dearden (University of Otago), Sonja Grath (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich), Bernhard Misof (Bonn group; both confirmed)

RNAi pathway genes

Jeanne Wilbrandt, Tanja Ziesmann, Alexander Donath, Oliver Niehuis (Bonn group) (all confirmed)

Hexamerins

Christian Pick (University of Hamburg) (confirmed)

Metabolism-related genes

Megumi Sumitani, Masatsugu Hatakeyama (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan; confirmed), Daisuke S. Yamamoto (Jichi Medical University, Japan; confirmed), Jeanne Wilbrandt (Bonn group; confirmed)

Environmental response genes (p450)

Ann Kathrin Huylmans (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich; confirmed), Judith Korb (University of Freiburg; confirmed)

Juvenil Hormon (JH)

Judith Korb (University of Freiburg; confirmed)

Neuropepties and their G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs)

Cornelis Grimmelikhuijzen (University of Copenhagen), Frank Hauser (University of Copenhagen; both confirmed)

Opsin genes

Daniela Bartel, Nikolaus Szucsich (University of Vienna; both confirmed)

Royal Jelly Proteins

Judith Korb (Freiburg; confirmed)

Insulator proteins

Lucia Vedder (Universiy of Tübingen; contacted) and Oliver Niehuis (Bonn group; confirmed)

Immune response, Toll-like receptors, AMPs

Lars Podsiadlowski (University of Bonn; confirmed), Sonja Grath (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich), Alexander Donath (Bonn group; both confirmed), Erich Bornberg-Bauer group (University of Münster; confirmed), Jeremy Lynch (University of Illinois; confirmed)

Metalloproteinases

Lars Podsiadlowski (University of Bonn; confirmed)

Oxydative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) pathway genes

Joshua D. Gibson (confirmed)

Venoms

Björn von Reumont (former Bonn group, now at the British Museum of Natural History in London with a recent great publication about venom evolution in MBE; already confirmed: he will also sequence the transcriptome of the Orussus venom gland with us; we just got funding for that)

Olfactory receptors

Ewald Große-Wilde (Max Planck-Institute for Chemical Ecology) and Oliver Niehuis (Bonn group; both confirmed) (we will also generate RNAseq data of antennal tissue; we have funding for that)

Gustatory receptors

Anupama Dahanukar (University of California, Riverside; contacted)

Ion channels

still searching for candidate

Protein domains

Erich Bornberg-Bauer (University of Münster; confirmed)

Alternative splicing

Michael Hiller (Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics; contacted and very likely)

Dosage compensation

Megumi Sumitani, Masatsugu Hatakeyama (National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences Tsukuba, Japan; confirmed), Daisuke S. Yamamoto (Jichi Medical University, Japan; confirmed)

Cis-regulatory elements

still searching

KEGG

Ann Kathrin Huylmans (Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich; confirmed)

Gene orthology

Evgeny Zdobnov (University of Geneva; confirmed), Jeanne Wilbrandt and Malte Petersen (Bonn group; both confirmed)

Comparative proteomics/dN/dS

Jeanne Wilbrandt, Oliver Niehuis (Bonn group; both confirmed)

Non-coding RNAs and other non-coding elements

Tanja Ziesmann, Alexander Donath (Bonn group) (confirmed; we will additionally generate RNAseq data specifically for annotating ncRNAs; we just got funding for that)

Microsatellites

Malte Petersen, Christoph Mayer (Bonn group; both confirmed)

Heterochromatin and repeats

Malte Petersen (Bonn group; confirmed)

Telomeres (unclear whether or not feasible with available data)

still searching for candidate

smORFs

Lars Podsiadlowski (University of Bonn; confirmed)

Mitochondrion and NUMTs

Tanja Ziesmann, Alexander Donath (Bonn group; both confirmed)

Endosymbionts

Lars Podsiadlowski (University of Bonn; confirmed);

Lateral gene transfer

John H. Werren (University of Rochester; will be contacted)

Ancestral state reconstruction

Malte Petersen, Jeanne Wilbrandt, Oliver Niehuis, Bernhard Misof, Tanja Ziesmann, Alexander Donath, Ralph S. Peters (Bonn group; all confirmed), Karen Meusemann (confirmed)