Genome assembly of the southern pine beetle ( <i>Dendroctonus frontalis</i> Zimmerman) reveals the origins of gene content reduction in <i>Dendroctonus</i>

<i>Dendroctonus frontalis</i> also known as southern pine beetle (SPB), is the most damaging insect forest pest in the southeastern United States. Genomic data are important to provide information on pest biology and to identify molecular targets to develop improved pest management approaches. Here, we produced a chromosome-level genome assembly of SPB using long-read sequencing data. Synteny analyses confirmed the conservation of the core Coleopteran Stevens elements and validated the <i>bona fide</i> SPB X chromosome. Transcriptomic data were used to obtain 39 588 transcripts corresponding to 13 354 putative protein-coding loci. Comparative analyses of gene content across 14 beetles and three other insects revealed several losses of conserved genes in the <i>Dendroctonus</i> clade and gene gains in SPB and <i>Dendroctonus</i> that were enriched for loci encoding membrane proteins and extracellular matrix proteins. While lineage-specific gene losses contributed to the gene content reduction observed in <i>Dendroctonus</i>, we also showed that widespread misannotation of transposable elements represents an important cause of the apparent gene expansion in several non-<i>Dendroctonus</i> species. Our findings uncovered distinctive features of the SPB gene complement and disentangled the role of biological and annotation-related factors contributing to gene content variation across beetles.