The Whole Genome of Colletes collaris (Hymenoptera: Colletidae): An Important Step in Comparative Genomics of Cellophane Bees

Gaining knowledge on bees is of the utmost importance due to the paramount role that they play in angiosperm pollination. Herein, we provide the first genome assembly of Colletes collaris, a pan-Eurasian cellophane bee. We sequenced 50.53 Gbp of long-read data plus 57.36 Gbp of short-read data in Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Illumina platforms, respectively. The genome assembly consisted of 374.75 Mbp distributed across 374 contigs, with L50 and N50 of 9 and 8.96 Mbp, respectively. We predicted the genome to comprise 20,399 protein-coding genes, 467,947 repeats, and 4,315 non-coding RNA genes. The transcriptome and mitochondrial genome of the species were also assembled. Gene family analysis with 15 insect species identified 14,417 families, 9,517 of them found in C. collaris. A dated phylogenomic analysis revealed high numbers of orthogroups experiencing rapid evolution within Colletes.

Automated summary

Gaining knowledge on bees is crucial due to their important role in angiosperm pollination. This study presents the first genome assembly of the Colletes collaris bee. Through sequencing data from different platforms, the researchers were able to predict the genome composition and identify gene families undergoing rapid evolution within Colletes.