A Reference Genome of Bursaphelenchus mucronatus Provides New Resources for Revealing Its Displacement by Pinewood Nematode

作者：Shuangyang Wu, Shenghan Gao, Sen Wang, Jie Meng, Jacob D. Wickham, Sainan Luo, Xinyu Tan, Haiying Yu, Yujia Xiang, Songnian Hu, Lilin Zhao, Jianghua Sun · 发表于：Genes · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.3390/genes11050570 · 被引用次数：23 · 研究领域：Nematode management and characterization studies、Legume Nitrogen Fixing Symbiosis、Insect-Plant Interactions and Control

The Bursaphelenchus mucronatus, which was highly similar with Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in terms of morphological characteristics and biological properties—but had weaker pathogenicity to forests—was a native species often displaced by B. xylophilus when occupying the same niche. Since the draft genome of the invasive B. xylophilus has been published, the absence of a reference genome of B. mucronatus still prevents us from understanding the molecular evidences behind competitive displacement. In this study, we employed Single Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing and a Hi-C scaffolding approach to yield a near chromosome-level assembly of B. mucronatus, including six pseudo-chromosomes. The assembly size is 73 Mb, with scaffold N50 of 11.50 Mb and contig N50 of 1.48 Mb. Comparative genomics results showed high similarity between B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus. However, the losing of orphan genes and species-specific orthologous genes in B. mucronatus may indicate weaker adaptability to the environment. The gene family contractions of GPCRs (G Protein-Coupled Receptors) and cellulases in B. mucronatus may jointly contribute to its displacement by B. xylophilus. Overall, we introduced a valuable genomic resource for molecular and evolutionary studies of B. mucronatus, especially for studying the competitive displacement by the pinewood nematode, which could help us control the pathogenicity of pine wilt diseases.