TY - JOUR T1 - Chromosome-level reference genome of the European wasp spider <em>Argiope bruennichi</em>: a resource for studies on range expansion and evolutionary adaptation JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.05.21.103564 SP - 2020.05.21.103564 AU - Monica M. Sheffer AU - Anica Hoppe AU - Henrik Krehenwinkel AU - Gabriele Uhl AU - Andreas W. Kuss AU - Lars Jensen AU - Corinna Jensen AU - Rosemary G. Gillespie AU - Katharina J. Hoff AU - Stefan Prost Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/22/2020.05.21.103564.abstract N2 - Background Argiope bruennichi, the European wasp spider, has been studied intensively as to sexual selection, chemical communication, and the dynamics of rapid range expansion at a behavioral and genetic level. However, the lack of a reference genome has limited insights into the genetic basis for these phenomena. Therefore, we assembled a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome of the European wasp spider as a tool for more in-depth future studies.Findings We generated, de novo, a 1.67Gb genome assembly of A. bruennichi using 21.5X PacBio sequencing, polished with 30X Illumina paired-end sequencing data, and proximity ligation (Hi-C) based scaffolding. This resulted in an N50 scaffold size of 124Mb and an N50 contig size of 288kb. We found 98.4% of the genome to be contained in 13 scaffolds, fitting the expected number of chromosomes (n = 13). Analyses showed the presence of 91.1% of complete arthropod BUSCOs, indicating a high quality of the assembly.Conclusions We present the first chromosome-level genome assembly in the class Arachnida. With this genomic resource, we open the door for more precise and informative studies on evolution and adaptation in A. bruennichi, as well as on several interesting topics in Arachnids, such as the genomic architecture of traits, whole genome duplication and the genomic mechanisms behind silk and venom evolution.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.Abd-AAbdominal-A;Abd-BAbdominal-B;AcSpaciniform spidroin;AgSpaggregate spidroin;AntpAntennapedia;ATadenine thymine;bpbasepairs;BUSCOBenchmarking Universal Single Copy Orthologs;DDBJDNA Data Bank of Japan;DfdDeformed;DNAdeoxyribonucleic acid;Flagflagelliform spidroin;ftzfushi tarazu;Gbgigabase pairs;GCguanine cytosine;kbkilobase pairs;lablabial;LINElong interspersed nuclear element;LTRlong terminal repeat;MaSpmajor ampullate spidroin;Mbmegabase pairs;MiSpminor ampullate spidroin;NCBINational Center for Biotechnology Information;PacBioPacific Biosciences;pbproboscipedia;PCRpolymerase chain reaction;PiSppiriform spidroin;RNAribonucleic acid;scrsex combs reduced;SINEshort interspersed nuclear element;TuSptubuliform spidroin;UbxUltrabithorax;WGDwhole genome duplication ER -