PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mosè Manni
AU  - Felipe A. Simao
AU  - Hugh M. Robertson
AU  - Marco A. Gabaglio
AU  - Robert M. Waterhouse
AU  - Bernhard Misof
AU  - Oliver Niehuis
AU  - Nikolaus Szucsich
AU  - Evgeny M. Zdobnov
TI  - The genome of the blind soil-dwelling and ancestrally wingless dipluran <em>Campodea augens</em>, a key reference hexapod for studying the emergence of insect innovations
AID  - 10.1101/585695
DP  - 2019 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 585695
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/585695.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/22/585695.full
AB  - The dipluran two-pronged bristletail Campodea augens is a blind ancestrally wingless hexapod, able to regenerate lost appendages such as its long antennae. As sister group to Insecta (sensu stricto), Diplura are key to understanding the early evolution of hexapods and the origin and evolution of insects. Here we report the 1.2-Gbp draft genome of C. augens and results from comparative genomic analyses with other arthropods. Possibly reflecting adaptation to soil life, we identiAed a paucity of photoreceptor genes, and by contrast the largest chemosensory gene repertoire of ionotropic receptors in the animal kingdom. Expansions of detoxiAcation and carbohydrate metabolism gene families likely reflect adaptations for foraging behaviour, and duplicated apoptotic genes might underlie its high regenerative potential. The C. augens genome represents a key reference for studying the emergence of genomic innovations in insects, the most diverse animal group, and opens up novel opportunities to study the under-explored biology of diplurans.