First Draft Genome Assembly of the Malaysian Stingless Bee, <i>Heterotrigona itama</i> (Apidae, Meliponinae)

• Main Authors: Chien-Yeong Wee, Amin-Asyraf Tamizi, Nazrul-Hisham Nazaruddin, Siuk-Mun Ng, Jia-Shiun Khoo, Rosliza Jajuli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-11-01
• Series: Data
• Subjects: eusocial insect; genomics; Illumina sequencing; pollinator; queen differentiation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/5/4/112

The Malaysian stingless bee industry is hugely dependent on wild colonies. Nevertheless, the availability of new queens to establish new colonies is insufficient to meet the growing demand for hives in the industry. <i>Heterotrigona itama</i> is primarily utilized for honey production in the region and the major source of stingless bee colonies comes from the wild. To propagate new colonies domestically, a fundamental understanding of the biology of queen development, especially from the genomics aspect, is necessary. The whole genome was sequenced using a paired-end 150 strategy on the Illumina HiSeq X platform. The shotgun sequencing generated approximately 89 million raw pair-end reads with a total output of 13.37 Gb and a GC content of 37.31%. The genome size of the species was estimated to be approximately 272 Mb. Phylogenetic analysis showed <i>H. itama</i> are much more closely related to the bumble bee (<i>Bombus</i> spp.) than they are to the modern honey bee (<i>Apis</i> spp.). The genome data provided here are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the genetic aspect of queen differentiation as well as of important molecular pathways which are crucial for stingless bee biology, management and conservation.