Annotated genome of the Eucalyptus snout beetle, Gonipterus sp. n. 2 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae)

Abstract Gonipterus species, or Eucalyptus snout beetles, are defoliators that damage Eucalyptus trees in plantations globally. The Gonipterus sp. n. 2 genome was sequenced using both Oxford Nanopore and Illumina sequencing platforms which produced 76.41 Gb long-read and 57.1 Gb short-read sequence data, respectively. Genome assembly using these data resulted in 1,023 contigs, with an N50 of 2.78 Mb and a genome size of roughly 1.54 Gb. Genome completeness analysis using BUSCO resulted in a score of 98.2%. We used Braker3 to annotate the assembled Gonipterus sp. n. 2 genome using transcriptomic data from gut and reproductive tissues, as well as and available protein sequences from selected Coleoptera species. Genome annotation resulted in 42,343 protein coding gene models and a proteome BUSCO completeness score of 99%. Protein clustering with 13 other insect species using OrthoFinder identified 22,245 families with 1,398 families unique to Gonipterus sp. n. 2. The number of cytochrome P450 monooxygenase genes in Gonipterus sp. n. 2 (n = 119) was greater than the other 13 insect species used in comparison. The genome of Gonipterus sp. n. 2 will be a valuable resource to assist in unravelling various aspects of the weevil’s life history, such as the metabolism of xenobiotics or the production of pheromones, and to develop alternative pest control methods. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.