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Pachypsylla venusta

Summary
Resource Type
Organism
Genus
Pachypsylla
Species
venusta
Common Name
Hackberry petiole gall psyllid
Description

Pachypsylla venusta is a gall-forming psyllid (Insecta: Hemiptera) specializing on hackberry trees, which are widely distributed in the United States.

Like many closely-related hemipterans such as whiteflies, aphids, and mealybugs, psyllids have a nutritionally imbalanced diet consisting primarily of plant sap. To compensate for the paucity of essential amino acids and other required nutrients in their diets, these insects have evolved ancient and intimate symbiotic relationships with intracellular bacteria that are capable of synthesizing these compounds.

The genome of the bacterial symbiont Carsonella from Pachypsylla venusta has been sequenced and represents one of the most extreme cases of genome reduction ever identified. At only 160 kb in size, this bacterial genome lacks many genes thought to be essential for cellular life, making this system an important model for elucidating the genomic mechanisms of host-symbiont interactions.

A complete genome from this gall-forming psyllid will also provide a valuable resource for investigating plant-insect interactions and gall-induction.

Data were generated by the Baylor College of Medicine's i5k pilot project.

View the Baylor College of Medicine's data sharing policy.

Publication
  1. Thomas GWC, Dohmen E, Hughes DST, Murali SC, Poelchau M, Glastad K, Anstead CA, Ayoub NA, Batterham P, Bellair M, Binford GJ, Chao H, Chen YH, Childers C, Dinh H, Doddapaneni HV, Duan JJ, Dugan S, Esposito LA, Friedrich M, Garb J, Gasser RB, Goodisman MAD, Gundersen-Rindal DE, Han Y, Handler AM, Hatakeyama M, Hering L, Hunter WB, Ioannidis P, Jayaseelan JC, Kalra D, Khila A, Korhonen PK, Lee CE, Lee SL, Li Y, Lindsey ARI, Mayer G, McGregor AP, McKenna DD, Misof B, Munidasa M, Munoz-Torres M, Muzny DM, Niehuis O, Osuji-Lacy N, Palli SR, Panfilio KA, Pechmann M, Perry T, Peters RS, Poynton HC, Prpic NM, Qu J, Rotenberg D, Schal C, Schoville SD, Scully ED, Skinner E, Sloan DB, Stouthamer R, Strand MR, Szucsich NU, Wijeratne A, Young ND, Zattara EE, Benoit JB, Zdobnov EM, Pfrender ME, Hackett KJ, Werren JH, Worley KC, Gibbs RA, Chipman AD, Waterhouse RM, Bornberg-Bauer E, Hahn MW, Richards S. Gene content evolution in the arthropods.. Genome biology. 2020 01 23; 21(1):15.
  2. Sloan DB, Nakabachi A, Richards S, Qu J, Murali SC, Gibbs RA, Moran NA. Parallel histories of horizontal gene transfer facilitated extreme reduction of endosymbiont genomes in sap-feeding insects.. Molecular biology and evolution. 2014 Apr; 31(4):857-71.
Organism Image
Image Credit
Copyright Dan Sloan
Analysis
NameProgramDate Constructed
Whole genome assembly of Pachypsylla venustaBaylor College of Medicine genome assembly pipelineJul 16th, 2013
BCM annotation of the Pachypyslla venusta assembly using Maker and additional analysesMAKERFeb 6th, 2014
Functional annotation of Pachypsylla venusta BCM version 0.5.3AgBase functional annotation pipelineMay 6th, 2022
Assembly Stats
Contig N50
1410
Scaffold N50
125467
GC Content
35.82
Other Information
Community Contact
Daniel Sloan|dbsloan@rams.colostate.edu
Links