Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research
Project Number: 3020-43000-034-059-N
Project Type: Non-Funded Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2029
Objective:
The USDA-ARS and University of New Mexico will work jointly to develop genomic resources for two prominent stored product insect species and investigate interactions between microbial symbionts and these insect species that enable them to detoxify insecticides and feed on stored grain. The results of this work will lead to the generation of insect genome assemblies and annotations for cigarette beetle, drugstore beetle, and their symbionts.
Approach:
The USDA researcher and the Cooperator will use various approaches to analyze and interpret sequencing data generated by the USDA and University of New Mexico including HiFiASM genome assembler, HiC/juicebox analysis, annotation using EGAP and ab initio approaches to gene prediction, such as Braker, and RNA-Seq tools, including kalisto, sailfish, DESeq2, and WCGNA gene network analysis.