The genome sequence of the Puss Moth, Cerura vinula (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae)
David C. Lees, Annabel Whibley, Panagiotis Ioannidis
TL;DR
This paper presents the genome sequence of the Puss Moth, including two haplotypes and a mitochondrial genome, as part of a larger project to sequence species in Britain and Ireland.
Contribution
The paper provides a high-quality reference genome for the Puss Moth, including chromosomal pseudomolecules and the mitochondrial genome.
Findings
The genome assembly includes two haplotypes with lengths of 690.59 and 688.27 megabases.
Haplotype 1 is scaffolded into 19 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome.
The mitochondrial genome is 16.79 kilobases in length.
Abstract
We present a genome assembly from an individual male Cerura vinula (Puss Moth; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Notodontidae). The assembly contains two haplotypes with total lengths of 690.59 megabases and 688.27 megabases. Most of haplotype 1 (99.72%) is scaffolded into 19 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome. Haplotype 2 was assembled to scaffold level. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled, with a length of 16.79 kilobases. This assembly was generated as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project, which produces reference genomes for eukaryotic species found in Britain and Ireland.
Genes, proteins, chemicals, diseases, species, mutations and cell lines named across the full text — each resolved to its canonical identifier and authoritative record.
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Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6| Platform | PacBio HiFi | Hi-C | RNA-seq |
|---|---|---|---|
|
| ilCerVinu1 | ilCerVinu1 | ilCerVinu1 |
|
| NHMUK013697068 | NHMUK013697068 | NHMUK013697068 |
|
| SAMEA114805616 | SAMEA114805616 | SAMEA114805616 |
|
| SAMEA114805735 | SAMEA114805735 | SAMEA114805735 |
|
| head and thorax | head and thorax | head and thorax |
|
| Revio | Illumina NovaSeq X | Illumina NovaSeq X |
|
| ERR13485735 | ERR13493992 | ERR14792842 |
|
| 1.89 million | 697.67 million | 92.11 million |
|
| 21.28 Gb | 105.35 Gb | 13.91 Gb |
|
| ilCerVinu1.hap1.1 | ilCerVinu1.hap2.1 |
|
| GCA_964276795.1 | GCA_964276825.1 |
|
| chromosome | scaffold |
|
| 690.59 | 688.27 |
|
| 19 | N/A |
|
| 367 | 328 |
|
| 3.74 Mb | 3.89 Mb |
|
| 69 | 59 |
|
| 39.49 Mb | 39.6 Mb |
|
| 49.71 | N/A |
|
| Z | N/A |
|
| Mitochondrion: 16.79 kb | N/A |
| INSDC
| Molecule | Length
| GC% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 49.71 | 38 | |
| 2 | 49.03 | 38.50 | |
| 3 | 48.96 | 38.50 | |
| 4 | 46.23 | 38.50 | |
| 5 | 45.98 | 38 | |
| 6 | 43.23 | 39 | |
| 7 | 42.14 | 38.50 | |
| 8 | 39.49 | 38.50 | |
| 9 | 39.05 | 38.50 | |
| 10 | 38.94 | 38.50 | |
| 11 | 38.85 | 38.50 | |
| 12 | 37.43 | 38.50 | |
| 13 | 30.74 | 38 | |
| 14 | 29.19 | 38 | |
| 15 | 27.90 | 38 | |
| 16 | 25.43 | 38 | |
| 17 | 16.01 | 39 | |
| 18 | 12.42 | 40.50 | |
| Z | 27.94 | 37 |
| Measure | Value | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| EBP summary (haplotype 1) | 6.C.Q64 | 6.C.Q40 |
| Contig N50 length | 3.74 Mb | ≥ 1 Mb |
| Scaffold N50 length | 39.49 Mb | = chromosome N50 |
| Consensus quality (QV) | Haplotype 1: 64.1; haplotype 2: 64.1; combined: 64.1 | ≥ 40 |
|
| Haplotype 1: 63.93%; Haplotype 2: 63.88%; combined: 99.36% | ≥ 95% |
| BUSCO | C:98.8% [S:98.2%; D:0.5%]; F:0.2%; M:1.0%; n:5 286 | S > 90%; D < 5% |
| Percentage of assembly
| 99.72% | ≥ 90% |
- —Wellcome Trust
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Taxonomy
TopicsLepidoptera: Biology and Taxonomy · Genetic diversity and population structure · Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
Species taxonomy
Eukaryota; Opisthokonta; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Protostomia; Ecdysozoa; Panarthropoda; Arthropoda; Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Endopterygota; Amphiesmenoptera; Lepidoptera; Glossata; Neolepidoptera; Heteroneura; Ditrysia; Obtectomera; Noctuoidea; Notodontidae; Cerurinae; Cerura; Cerura vinula (Linnaeus, 1758) (NCBI:txid987900)
Background
Cerura vinula (Linnaeus, 1758), also known as the Puss Moth ( Waring et al., 2017), is a moth in the family Notodontidae (now placed in subfamily Cerurinae, St Laurent et al., 2023) with around 29–38 mm wingspan ( Waring et al., 2017). This large moth is quite unmistakeable with its whitish or grey background colour, furry thorax, abdomen and forelegs, with black spots on thorax and base of forewings, and on the forewings a complex pattern of dark grey brackets making way for chevrons that increase in size towards the forewing termen and are interdigitated with dark lines radiating back from this edge. The female is larger and darker on average ( Waring et al., 2017). The antennae of the male are strongly pectinate. The moth displays thanatosis when disturbed, curling round its abdomen in a pseudo-stinging motion and displaying its yellow intersegmental membranes.
The adult moth flies in the United Kingdom from early April protracted to the end of July with a peak around the end of May, but emergence has advanced since the 1970s ( Randle et al., 2019: 226). The species is nocturnal and attracted to light.
In the UK the species is associated with a wide range of sallows, willows ( Salix L.) poplars and aspen ( Populus L.) in a wide variety of habitats including woods and gardens ( Randle et al., 2019); see Lepiforum (2025) for a list of foodplants.
The dark red, plant gall-like eggs of the Puss Moth are laid singly, in pairs or triplets on the upper leaf surface. The full-grown larva is spectacular, ventrally green with dorsal greyish-purple colouration that extends towards the second pair of prolegs like a saddle (see e.g. Lepiforum, 2025). On disturbance it displays a pair of red filament-like whips from its black and white striped caudal projections (which are modified anal prolegs) and the red area around the false thoracic face ( St Laurent et al., 2023) that is topped with two black eyespots and exposed in a prominent, aposematic display; the true legs are also black and white ringed. If attacked the larva can even project formic acid from the prothoracic cervical gland with a slit-like opening that is found in many notodontid moth caterpillars just under the head. Poulton (1890) discovered that this fluid contained 33–40% formic acid and he had himself felt the pain of droplets directed towards his eye. The early instar larva is mostly black with a pair of projections on the head and relatively long caudal projections. The adult larva becomes plum coloured when seeking a pupation site. The dark brown pupa is in an overwintering cocoon that is dome-shaped, hard as concrete, with woodchips included and well camouflaged on trunks of its foodplant or other substrates such as posts ( Lepiforum, 2025). The cocoon is so hard that only Greater Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos major (Linnaeus, 1758) seem to be able to break them open ( Leverton & Cubitt, 2024). On emergence the adult utilises a secretion of potassium hydroxide to soften its exit ( Latter, 1895).
There are currently 16 512 records on the NBN Atlas Partnership (2025). The species occurs throughout Great Britain and Ireland, including the Hebrides, Scilly Islands, Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey), and Orkney, but not Shetland. However, records from Ireland are limited (see Randle et al., 2019 for details). The species is less frequent at higher elevations and northern latitudes ( Leverton & Cubitt, 2024; Randle et al., 2019; Waring et al., 2017). In the United Kingdom, distribution increased by 7% over 1970 to 2016, but declined by 13% from 2000 to 2016 ( Randle et al., 2019). The species has declined particularly in eastern Scotland, perhaps due to increased cocoon predation by Greater Spotted Woodpeckers ( Leverton & Cubitt, 2024). The species’ global range extends from the British and Irish Isles through Western Europe to Central Asia and Japan ( GBIF Secretariat, 2025).
The DNA barcode from the mitogenome assembly (OZ194647.1) is identical or very similar to a group of European haplotypes on BOLD (01/08/2025) sequenced from United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. It represents the COI-5P cluster (BIN) BOLD:AAB7277 with up to 3.37% variability ( n = 149), and thus exhibits a complex phylogeographic structure. This sequence falls into one of the two main haplogroups within this BIN, which essentially are identified as the nominotypical subspecies C. vinula vinula or C. v. estonica (Huene, 1905) at more northern latitudes, and another comprising taxa identified as not only the nominotypical subspecies but also ones identified as C. vinula irakana (Heydemann, Schulte & Remane, 1963), C. intermedia* (Teich, 1896), C. iberica (Ortiz & Templado, 1966), C. przewalskii (Alphéraky, 1882), and C. zolutuhini Schintlmeister, 2008. The BIN also includes C. felina Butler, 1877, C. hreblayi Schintlmeister, 2008, C. kautti Schintlmeister, 2008, C. himalayana Moore, 1888 and C. delavoiei (Gaschet, 1876). The nearest neighbour to the BIN BOLD:AAB7277 at an average 1.59% p-distance is BOLD:AEI8479 (also identified as C. delavoiei (Gaschet, 1876)).
The genome will be helpful in investigating the phylogeography of the species in Europe and revising species and subspecies concepts. A sister relationship of ( Cerura Schrank, 1802 + Kamalia Koçak & Kemal, 2006) + Furcula Lamarck, 1816 was recovered using 28SrRNA by Kobayashi and Nonaka (2016). Systematics of the subfamily Cerurinae have recently been revised by St Laurent et al. (2023) based on data for 666 loci. Cerura is now one of 15 genera within the monophyletic subfamily Cerurinae. The shallowly diverged Cerura vinula complex, which included several of the above exemplar taxa, was recovered by St Laurent et al. (2023) as sister to the also European Cerura erminea (Esper, 1783) + the Asiatic C. menciana Moore, 1877, Cerura again being sister to the diverse Asian genus Kamalia and these two genera now being sister to the New World Americerura St Laurent and Goldstein, 2023. This whole clade was recovered as sister to the Indomalayan species Neocerura liturata (Walker, 1855) and all these taxa sister to Neoharpyia Daniel, 1965 + the Old World kitten moths (the genus Furcula). We present a chromosome-level genome sequence for Cerura vinula, the Puss Moth. The assembly was produced using the Tree of Life pipeline from a specimen collected in Lucas Road, High Wycombe, England, United Kingdom ( Figure 1), as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project.
Photograph of the Cerura vinula (ilCerVinu1) specimen used for genome sequencing.
Methods
Sample acquisition and DNA barcoding
The specimen used for genome sequencing was an adult male Cerura vinula (specimen ID NHMUK013697068, ToLID ilCerVinu1; Figure 1), collected from Lucas Road, High Wycombe, England, United Kingdom (latitude 51.63, longitude –0.74) on 2022-04-15. The specimen was collected and identified by David Lees (Natural History Museum). The same specimen was used for RNA sequencing. Sample metadata were collected in line with the Darwin Tree of Life project standards described by Lawniczak et al. (2022).
The initial identification was verified by an additional DNA barcoding process according to the framework developed by Twyford et al. (2024). A small sample was dissected from the specimen and stored in ethanol, while the remaining parts were shipped on dry ice to the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) (see the protocol). The tissue was lysed, the COI marker region was amplified by PCR, and amplicons were sequenced and compared to the BOLD database, confirming the species identification ( Crowley et al., 2023). Following whole genome sequence generation, the relevant DNA barcode region was also used alongside the initial barcoding data for sample tracking at the WSI ( Twyford et al., 2024). The standard operating procedures for Darwin Tree of Life barcoding are available on protocols.io.
Nucleic acid extraction
Protocols for high molecular weight (HMW) DNA extraction developed at the Wellcome Sanger Institute (WSI) Tree of Life Core Laboratory are available on protocols.io ( Howard et al., 2025). The ilCerVinu1 sample was weighed and triaged to determine the appropriate extraction protocol. Tissue from the head and thorax was homogenised by powermashing using a PowerMasher II tissue disruptor.
HMW DNA was extracted in the WSI Scientific Operations core using the Automated MagAttract v2 protocol. DNA was sheared into an average fragment size of 12–20 kb following the Megaruptor®3 for LI PacBio protocol. Sheared DNA was purified by automated SPRI (solid-phase reversible immobilisation). The concentration of the sheared and purified DNA was assessed using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer and Qubit Fluorometer using the Qubit dsDNA High Sensitivity Assay kit. Fragment size distribution was evaluated by running the sample on the FemtoPulse system. For this sample, the final post-shearing DNA had a Qubit concentration of 76.22 ng/μL and a yield of 3 582.34 ng, with a fragment size of 16.5 kb. The 260/280 spectrophotometric ratio was 1.8, and the 260/230 ratio was 1.53.
RNA was extracted from head and thorax tissue of ilCerVinu1 in the Tree of Life Laboratory at the WSI using the RNA Extraction: Automated MagMax™ mirVana protocol. The RNA concentration was assessed using a Nanodrop spectrophotometer and a Qubit Fluorometer using the Qubit RNA Broad-Range Assay kit. Analysis of the integrity of the RNA was done using the Agilent RNA 6000 Pico Kit and Eukaryotic Total RNA assay.
PacBio HiFi library preparation and sequencing
Library preparation and sequencing were performed at the WSI Scientific Operations core. Libraries were prepared using the SMRTbell Prep Kit 3.0 (Pacific Biosciences, California, USA), following the manufacturer’s instructions. The kit includes reagents for end repair/A-tailing, adapter ligation, post-ligation SMRTbell bead clean-up, and nuclease treatment. Size selection and clean-up were performed using diluted AMPure PB beads (Pacific Biosciences). DNA concentration was quantified using a Qubit Fluorometer v4.0 (ThermoFisher Scientific) and the Qubit 1X dsDNA HS assay kit. Final library fragment size was assessed with the Agilent Femto Pulse Automated Pulsed Field CE Instrument (Agilent Technologies) using the gDNA 55 kb BAC analysis kit.
The sample was sequenced on a Revio instrument (Pacific Biosciences). The prepared library was normalised to 2 nM, and 15 μL was used for making complexes. Primers were annealed and polymerases bound to generate circularised complexes, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Complexes were purified using 1.2X SMRTbell beads, then diluted to the Revio loading concentration (200–300 pM) and spiked with a Revio sequencing internal control. The sample was sequenced on a Revio 25M SMRT cell. The SMRT Link software (Pacific Biosciences), a web-based workflow manager, was used to configure and monitor the run and to carry out primary and secondary data analysis.
Hi-C
** Sample preparation and crosslinking **
The Hi-C sample was prepared from 20–50 mg of frozen head and thorax tissue of the ilCerVinu1 sample using the Arima-HiC v2 kit (Arima Genomics). Following the manufacturer’s instructions, tissue was fixed and DNA crosslinked using TC buffer to a final formaldehyde concentration of 2%. The tissue was homogenised using the Diagnocine Power Masher-II. Crosslinked DNA was digested with a restriction enzyme master mix, biotinylated, and ligated. Clean-up was performed with SPRISelect beads before library preparation. DNA concentration was measured with the Qubit Fluorometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Qubit HS Assay Kit. The biotinylation percentage was estimated using the Arima-HiC v2 QC beads.
** Hi-C library preparation and sequencing **
Biotinylated DNA constructs were fragmented using a Covaris E220 sonicator and size selected to 400–600 bp using SPRISelect beads. DNA was enriched with Arima-HiC v2 kit Enrichment beads. End repair, A-tailing, and adapter ligation were carried out with the NEBNext Ultra II DNA Library Prep Kit (New England Biolabs), following a modified protocol where library preparation occurs while DNA remains bound to the Enrichment beads. Library amplification was performed using KAPA HiFi HotStart mix and a custom Unique Dual Index (UDI) barcode set (Integrated DNA Technologies). Depending on sample concentration and biotinylation percentage determined at the crosslinking stage, libraries were amplified with 10–16 PCR cycles. Post-PCR clean-up was performed with SPRISelect beads. Libraries were quantified using the AccuClear Ultra High Sensitivity dsDNA Standards Assay Kit (Biotium) and a FLUOstar Omega plate reader (BMG Labtech).
Prior to sequencing, libraries were normalised to 10 ng/μL. Normalised libraries were quantified again and equimolar and/or weighted 2.8 nM pools. Pool concentrations were checked using the Agilent 4200 TapeStation (Agilent) with High Sensitivity D500 reagents before sequencing. Sequencing was performed using paired-end 150 bp reads on the Illumina NovaSeq X.
RNA library preparation and sequencing
Libraries were prepared using the NEBNext ^®^ Ultra™ II Directional RNA Library Prep Kit for Illumina (New England Biolabs), following the manufacturer’s instructions. Poly(A) mRNA in the total RNA solution was isolated using oligo(dT) beads, converted to cDNA, and uniquely indexed; 14 PCR cycles were performed. Libraries were size-selected to produce fragments between 100–300 bp. Libraries were quantified, normalised, pooled to a final concentration of 2.8 nM, and diluted to 150 pM for loading. Sequencing was carried out on the Illumina NovaSeq X to generate 150-bp paired-end reads.
Genome assembly
Prior to assembly of the PacBio HiFi reads, a database of k-mer counts ( k = 31) was generated from the filtered reads using FastK. GenomeScope2 ( Ranallo-Benavidez et al., 2020) was used to analyse the k-mer frequency distributions, providing estimates of genome size, heterozygosity, and repeat content.
The HiFi reads were assembled using Hifiasm in Hi-C phasing mode ( Cheng et al., 2021; Cheng et al., 2022), producing two haplotypes. Hi-C reads ( Rao et al., 2014) were mapped to the primary contigs using bwa-mem2 ( Vasimuddin et al., 2019). Contigs were further scaffolded with Hi-C data in YaHS ( Zhou et al., 2023), using the --break option for handling potential misassemblies. The scaffolded assemblies were evaluated using Gfastats ( Formenti et al., 2022), BUSCO ( Manni et al., 2021) and MERQURY.FK ( Rhie et al., 2020).
The mitochondrial genome was assembled using MitoHiFi ( Uliano-Silva et al., 2023), which runs MitoFinder ( Allio et al., 2020) and uses these annotations to select the final mitochondrial contig and to ensure the general quality of the sequence.
Assembly curation
The assembly was decontaminated using the Assembly Screen for Cobionts and Contaminants ( ASCC) pipeline. TreeVal was used to generate the flat files and maps for use in curation. Manual curation was conducted primarily in PretextView and HiGlass ( Kerpedjiev et al., 2018). Scaffolds were visually inspected and corrected as described by Howe et al. (2021). Manual corrections included 8 breaks and 66 joins. The curation process is documented at https://gitlab.com/wtsi-grit/rapid-curation. PretextSnapshot was used to generate a Hi-C contact map of the final assembly.
Assembly quality assessment
The Merqury.FK tool ( Rhie et al., 2020) was run in a Singularity container ( Kurtzer et al., 2017) to evaluate k-mer completeness and assembly quality for both haplotypes using the k-mer databases ( k = 31) computed prior to genome assembly. The analysis outputs included assembly QV scores and completeness statistics.
The genome was analysed using the BlobToolKit pipeline, a Nextflow implementation of the earlier Snakemake version ( Challis et al., 2020). The pipeline aligns PacBio reads using minimap2 ( Li, 2018) and SAMtools ( Danecek et al., 2021) to generate coverage tracks. It runs BUSCO ( Manni et al., 2021) using lineages identified from the NCBI Taxonomy ( Schoch et al., 2020). For the three domain-level lineages, BUSCO genes are aligned to the UniProt Reference Proteomes database ( Bateman et al., 2023) using DIAMOND blastp ( Buchfink et al., 2021). The genome is divided into chunks based on the density of BUSCO genes from the closest taxonomic lineage, and each chunk is aligned to the UniProt Reference Proteomes database with DIAMOND blastx. Sequences without hits are chunked using seqtk and aligned to the NT database with blastn ( Altschul et al., 1990). The BlobToolKit suite consolidates all outputs into a blobdir for visualisation. The BlobToolKit pipeline was developed using nf-core tooling ( Ewels et al., 2020) and MultiQC ( Ewels et al., 2016), with containerisation through Docker ( Merkel, 2014) and Singularity ( Kurtzer et al., 2017).
Genome sequence report
Sequence data
PacBio sequencing of the Cerura vinula specimen generated 21.28 Gb (gigabases) from 1.89 million reads, which were used to assemble the genome. GenomeScope2.0 analysis estimated the haploid genome size at 664.63 Mb, with a heterozygosity of 2.70% and repeat content of 42.69% ( Figure 2). These estimates guided expectations for the assembly. Based on the estimated genome size, the sequencing data provided approximately 31× coverage. Hi-C sequencing produced 105.35 Gb from 697.67 million reads, which were used to scaffold the assembly. RNA sequencing data were also generated and are available in public sequence repositories. Table 1 summarises the specimen and sequencing details.
Frequency distribution of k-mers generated using GenomeScope2.The plot shows observed and modelled k-mer spectra, providing estimates of genome size, heterozygosity, and repeat content based on unassembled sequencing reads.
Assembly statistics
The genome was assembled into two haplotypes using Hi-C phasing. Haplotype 1 was curated to chromosome level, while haplotype 2 was assembled to scaffold level. The final assembly has a total length of 690.59 Mb in 69 scaffolds, with 298 gaps, and a scaffold N50 of 39.49 Mb ( Table 2).
Most of the assembly sequence (99.72%) was assigned to 19 chromosomal-level scaffolds, representing 18 autosomes and the Z sex chromosome. These chromosome-level scaffolds, confirmed by Hi-C data, are named according to size ( Figure 3; Table 3). The Z chromosome was identified through synteny analysis with the genome of Clostera curtula (GCA_905475355.2). During curation we noted that contigs in the following regions have uncertain order and orientation: chromosome 6 (33.2–34.9 Mbp) and chromosome 18 (11.2–12.39 Mbp).
Hi-C contact map of the Cerura vinula genome assembly.Assembled chromosomes are shown in order of size and labelled along the axes, with a megabase scale shown below. The plot was generated using PretextSnapshot.
Table 3.: Chromosomal pseudomolecules in the haplotype 1 genome assembly of Cerura vinula ilCerVinu1.
The mitochondrial genome was also assembled. This sequence is included as a contig in the multifasta file of the genome submission and as a standalone record.
For haplotype 1, the estimated QV is 64.1, and for haplotype 2, 64.1. When the two haplotypes are combined, the assembly achieves an estimated QV of 64.1. The k-mer completeness is 63.93% for haplotype 1, 63.88% for haplotype 2, and 99.36% for the combined haplotypes ( Figure 4).
Evaluation of k-mer completeness using MerquryFK.This plot illustrates the recovery of k‐mers from the original read data in the final assemblies. The horizontal axis represents k‐mer multiplicity, and the vertical axis shows the number of k‐mers. The black curve represents k‐mers that appear in the reads but are not assembled. The green curve corresponds to k‐mers shared by both haplotypes, and the red and blue curves show k‐mers found only in one of the haplotypes.
BUSCO analysis using the lepidoptera_odb10 reference set ( n = 5 286) identified 98.8% of the expected gene set (single = 98.2%, duplicated = 0.5%) for haplotype 1. The snail plot in Figure 5 summarises the scaffold length distribution and other assembly statistics for haplotype 1. The blob plot in Figure 6 shows the distribution of scaffolds by GC proportion and coverage for haplotype 1.
Assembly metrics for ilCerVinu1.hap1.1.The BlobToolKit snail plot provides an overview of assembly metrics and BUSCO gene completeness. The circumference represents the length of the whole genome sequence, and the main plot is divided into 1 000 bins around the circumference. The outermost blue tracks display the distribution of GC, AT, and N percentages across the bins. Scaffolds are arranged clockwise from longest to shortest and are depicted in dark grey. The longest scaffold is indicated by the red arc, and the deeper orange and pale orange arcs represent the N50 and N90 lengths. A light grey spiral at the centre shows the cumulative scaffold count on a logarithmic scale. A summary of complete, fragmented, duplicated, and missing BUSCO genes in the set is presented at the top right. An interactive version of this figure can be accessed on the BlobToolKit viewer.
BlobToolKit GC-coverage plot for ilCerVinu1.hap1.1.Blob plot showing sequence coverage (vertical axis) and GC content (horizontal axis). The circles represent scaffolds, with the size proportional to scaffold length and the colour representing phylum membership. The histograms along the axes display the total length of sequences distributed across different levels of coverage and GC content. An interactive version of this figure is available on the BlobToolKit viewer.
Table 4 lists the assembly metric benchmarks adapted from Rhie et al. (2021) the Earth BioGenome Project Report on Assembly Standards September 2024. The EBP metric, calculated for the haplotype 1, is 6.C.Q64, meeting the recommended reference standard.
Table 4.: Earth Biogenome Project summary metrics for the Cerura vinula assembly.
Wellcome Sanger Institute – Legal and Governance
The materials that have contributed to this genome note have been supplied by a Darwin Tree of Life Partner. The submission of materials by a Darwin Tree of Life Partner is subject to the ‘Darwin Tree of Life Project Sampling Code of Practice’, which can be found in full on the Darwin Tree of Life website. By agreeing with and signing up to the Sampling Code of Practice, the Darwin Tree of Life Partner agrees they will meet the legal and ethical requirements and standards set out within this document in respect of all samples acquired for, and supplied to, the Darwin Tree of Life Project. Further, the Wellcome Sanger Institute employs a process whereby due diligence is carried out proportionate to the nature of the materials themselves, and the circumstances under which they have been/are to be collected and provided for use. The purpose of this is to address and mitigate any potential legal and/or ethical implications of receipt and use of the materials as part of the research project, and to ensure that in doing so we align with best practice wherever possible. The overarching areas of consideration are:
Ethical review of provenance and sourcing of the materialLegality of collection, transfer and use (national and international)
Each transfer of samples is further undertaken according to a Research Collaboration Agreement or Material Transfer Agreement entered into by the Darwin Tree of Life Partner, Genome Research Limited (operating as the Wellcome Sanger Institute), and in some circumstances, other Darwin Tree of Life collaborators.
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