About the Project
The Ceratitis capitata genome sequence and its analysis has been published in Genome Biology, "The whole genome sequence of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann), reveals insights into the biology and adaptive evolution of a highly invasive pest species."
We at the BCM-HGSC would like to thank the many members of the medfly community whose hard work has made this a successful project.
Contact: Al Handler
Researchers involved:
Size (or size of nearest relative): 480Mbp
Keywords (and why important): major agricultural pest, close evolutionary relationship to Drosophila, polytene chromosomal map, efficient germ-line transformation
About the Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata)
The medfly has been an established lab organism for several decades, and is notable as being the closest non-drosophilid relative to Drosophila subject to genetic analysis, with broad chromosomal syntenic relationships established. It is also one of the most important agricultural pests worldwide due to its broad plant host range throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Genetic studies have been driven by efforts to use genetic manipulation to improve the sterile insect technique which is used to control medfly and several other tephritid species through multi-tactical integrated pest management approaches. It was among the first non-drosophilid insects to have a polytene chromosomal genetic map created, having ~30 cloned genes mapped by in situ hybridization. It was also the first to have its germ-line efficiently transformed by a transposon-based vector system. It is now a model system for genetic manipulation in non-drosophilids, including functional genomics analysis, new vector systems for transgene stabilization, genomic targeting, and transgenic strains created for population control.
Genomic Resources
For the most current version of the assembly, please use 'NCBI BioProject' (find link below). If the assembly is unavailable in the BioProject page (it is still being worked on), you can look under the 'BCM-HGSC data' (find link below) for intermediate versions of the assembly.
Web Apollo: A web-based sequence annotation editor for community annotation
For information about Web Apollo and login access, please contact Alexie Papanicolaou.
- Web Apollo annotation tool (requires log in)
- Web Apollo Jbrowse viewing of the automated annotation tracks (no log in required)