First genome assemblies of Neotropical Thoracobombus Bumblebees Bombus pauloensis and Bombus pullatus

Abstract

Bumble bees (Bombus) are considered to be essential pollinators of a wide range of flowering plants, within both agricultural and natural ecosystems. Bombus pauloensis and Bombus pullatus are two closely related Neotropical species with a wide altitudinal and latitudinal distribution that belong to the Thoracobombus genus. To the best of our knowledge, there is no genome assembly available for any species of Neotropical Bombus. Therefore, the goal of this study is to produce high-quality genomes of B. pauloensis and B. pullatus. In order to achieve this objective, we obtained long-read sequences using the Oxford Nanopore Technologies platform. We then proceeded to assemble the genomes and annotate these assemblies. As a result, we obtained assemblies of [~]240Mb represented in 72 contigs with an N50 of [~] 9.08Mb for Bombus pullatus and [~]239Mb represented in 66 contigs with an N50 of [~]9Mb for Bombus pauloensis. The completeness evaluated by compleasm return a score >99% for both species. It is hoped that these genomes will facilitate a more profound comprehension of the biology of Neotropical bumblebees.