De Novo Genome Assembly and Annotation for the Webbing Clothes Moth (Tineola bisselliella): A Globally Distributed, Economically Important Pest

Abstract

Tineola bisselliella, the webbing clothes moth, is an economically important, globally distributed synanthropic pest species and member of the basal moth lineage Tineidae. Tineola bisselliella is facultatively keratinophagous. Therefore, their larvae can cause extensive damage, particularly to clothing, textiles, and museum specimens. Despite the economic and phylogenetic importance of Tineola bisselliella, there is a lack of quality genomic resources for this species, or for others within the Tineidae family. The Tineola bisselliella genome presented here consists of 30 pseudochromosomes (29 autosomes and 1 Z chromosome) produced using synteny alignment to a closely related species, Tinea pellionella. The resulting final pseudochromosome-level assembly is 243.630 Mb and has an N50 length of 8.708 Mb. The assembly is highly contiguous and has similar or improved quality compared to other available Tineidae genomes, with 93.1% of lepidopteran orthologs complete and present. Annotation of the pseudochromosome-level genome assembly with the transcriptome we produced ultimately yielded 11,267 annotated genes. Synteny alignments between the Tineola bisselliella genome assembly and other Tineidae genomes found evidence for numerous small rearrangements with high synteny conservation. In contrast, synteny alignments performed between Tineola bisselliella and the more distantly related Bombyx mori and Melitea cinxia revealed more frequent small and large rearrangements as predicted by their evolutionary divergence. The reference quality annotated genome for Tineola bisselliella presented here will advance our understanding of the evolution of the lepidopteran karyotype by providing a chromosome-level genome for this basal moth lineage and provide future insights into the mechanisms underlying keratin digestion in Tineola bisselliella. Significance StatementTineola bisselliella, the webbing clothes moth, is a globally distributed synanthropic pest species that feeds on both keratin-based materials and detritus. This dietary habit can cause substantial damage to clothing, textiles, rugs, taxidermy, and museum specimens. In fact, keratinophagous organisms cause an estimated $1 billion worth of damage annually in the United States. However, the lack of a high-quality annotated reference genome for this basal moth species has thus far limited our understanding of the mechanisms underlying keratin digestion relevant to pest control efforts and has hampered efforts to investigate the broader phylogenetic relationships the Tineidae family necessary to reveal patterns of lepidopteran chromosome evolution. Here, we present the first reference quality genome for Tineola bisselliella and the first annotated genome for any member of the Tineidae family, providing a critical resource for the lepidopteran genomics and pest management communities.