First genome assemblies of Neotropical <i>Thoracobombus</i> Bumblebees <i>Bombus pauloensis</i> and <i>Bombus pullatus</i>

Abstract

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 &gt;99% for both species. It is hoped that these genomes will facilitate a more profound comprehension of the biology of Neotropical bumblebees.