Genome assemblies of two bumble bee species: <i>Bombus sonorus</i> and <i>Bombus vosnesenskii</i>
Globally, many bumble bee species are declining in abundance due to diverse factors that include habitat loss, pesticide exposure, disease, and climate change. Some species' populations, however, appear to be relatively stable or even increasing, with reasons for this disparity unclear. Increased genomic resources for different bumble bee species will aid in identifying any genetic causes of these differences. We assembled highly contiguous and complete de novo genomes of two species with different levels of population imperilment: the Sonoran bumble bee (Bombus sonorus Say 1837) and the Vosnesenky or yellow-faced bumble bee (B. vosnesenskii Radoszkowski 1862). Here we present genomes for both species assembled with Pacific Biosciences HiFi long reads and Dovetail Omni-C data. These genomes are at the scaffold level, but contain multiple chromosome-length scaffolds, and have similar or higher levels of contiguity of other published chromosome-level Bombus genomes. These genomic resources support conservation planning for both important pollinator species by facilitating future resequencing efforts to understand genetic variation within the species.
Authors
- Mohan P A Marimuthu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6121-3286)
- Kimberly M. Ballare (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1824-3364)
- William Seligmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5762-3095)
- Leif L. Richardson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4855-5737)
- Noravit Chumchim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1139-9427)
- Kaleigh Fisher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1395-2484)
- Blanca M. Guillén
- Oanh Nguyen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1492-2084)
- Merly Escalona (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0213-4777)
- Beth A. Shapiro
- S Hollis Woodard
- Neal M Williams
Institutions
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- WWF Colombia (CO)
- University of Connecticut (US)
- University of California, Santa Cruz (US)
- Xerces Society (US)
- Protein Express (United States) (US)
- BD Biosciences (United States) (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Heredity
- Published
- 2025-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esaf109
- Primary Topic
- Insect and Pesticide Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- University of California, Santa Cruz
- National Institutes of Health
- University of California, Davis
- Genome Center, University of California, Davis