De novo assembly of the Aedes aegypti genome using Hi-C yields chromosome-length scaffolds

Abstract

We present an end-to-end genome assembly of a female Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads viral diseases such as yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya, and Zika to humans. The assembly is based on an earlier genome published in 2007 and improved in 2013. The new assembly has a scaffold N50 of 419Mb, with 96.9% of the ungapped sequence anchored to chromosomes. We used the new assembly to examine the conservation of A. aegypti chromosomes. Our results suggest that synteny is strongly conserved between Ae. aegypti and An. gambiae. Comparison to D. melanogaster highlights the extent to which the identity of entire chromosome arms is preserved across dipterans.