Meeting Abstract
77-3 Sunday, Jan. 6 08:30 – 08:45 Firefly genomes illuminate parallel origins of bioluminescence in beetles LOWER, SE*; FALLON, TR; CHANG, C; BESSHO-UEHARA, M; MARTIN, GJ; BEWICK, AJ; BEHRINGER, M; DEBAT, HJ; WONG, I; DAY, JC; SUVOROV, A; SILVA, CJ; Stanger-Hall, KF, University of Georgia; Hall, DW, University of Georgia; Schmitz, RJ, University of Georgia; Nelson, DR, University of Tennessee; Lewis, SM, Tufts University; Shigenobu, S, National Institute for Basic Biology; Bybee, SM, Brigham Young University; Larracuente, AM, University of Rochester; Oba, Y, Chubu University; Weng, J, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Bucknell University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Rochester; Chubu University; Brigham Young University; University of Georgia; Arizona State University; National Institute of Agricultural Technology; University of Rochester; Centre for Ecology and Hydrology; Brigham Young University; University of California Davis s.lower@bucknell.edu
Fireflies and their captivating luminous courtships have inspired centuries of scientific study. Today, firefly luciferase is widely used in biotechnology; however, the evolutionary origin of their bioluminescence remains unclear. To shed light on this long-standing question, we sequenced the genomes of two firefly species that diverged over 100 million-years-ago: the North American Photinus pyralis and Japanese Aquatica lateralis, as well as the genome of a related luminescent click-beetle, the Caribbean Ignelater luminosus . A variety of sequencing and assembly strategies, including hybrid assembly of long PacBio and short Illumina reads and scaffolding with HiC long-range data, yielded excellent genome assemblies. Subsequent analyses support two independent gains of bioluminescence between fireflies and click-beetles, and provide new insights into the genes, chemical defenses, and symbionts that evolved alongside their luminous lifestyle.
