Skip to main content
Wellcome Open Research logoLink to Wellcome Open Research
. 2026 Sep 11;11:635. [Version 1] doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.27779.1

The genome sequence of the Royal Burnet, Zygaena sarpedon Hübner, 1790 (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)

Roger Vila 1, Joan Carles Hinojosa 1, Marianne Espeland 2, Charlotte J Wright 3,a, Joana I Meier 3, Mark L Blaxter 3; Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Management, Samples and Laboratory team; Wellcome Sanger Institute Scientific Operations: Sequencing Operations; Wellcome Sanger Institute Tree of Life Core Informatics team; Tree of Life Core Informatics collective; Project Psyche Community
PMCID: PMC13617277  PMID: 42812198

Abstract

We present a genome assembly from a male specimen of Zygaena sarpedon (Royal Burnet; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Zygaenidae). The assembly contains two haplotypes with total lengths of 342.18 megabases and 341.53 megabases. Most of the haplotype 1 assembly (99.96%) was scaffolded into 30 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 15.98 kilobases. Gene annotation of this assembly by Ensembl identified 12,067 protein-coding genes. This work is part of Project Psyche, a collaborative programme generating genomes for European butterflies and moths.

Keywords: Zygaena sarpedon, Royal Burnet, genome sequence, chromosomal, Lepidoptera

Species taxonomy

Eukaryota; Opisthokonta; Metazoa; Eumetazoa; Bilateria; Protostomia; Ecdysozoa; Panarthropoda; Arthropoda; Mandibulata; Pancrustacea; Altocrustacea; Allotriocarida; Hexapoda; Insecta; Dicondylia; Pterygota; Neoptera; Eumetabola; Endopterygota; Aparaglossata; Panorpida; Amphiesmenoptera; Lepidoptera; Glossata; Neolepidoptera; Heteroneura; Ditrysia; Apoditrysia; Zygaenoidea; Zygaenidae; Zygaeninae; Zygaena; Zygaena sarpedon Hübner, 1790 (NCBI:txid287354)

Background

The Royal Burnet moth, Zygaena sarpedon (Figure 1), is distributed across much of the Iberian Peninsula from southern Portugal to northern Spain, and along the Mediterranean coast from slightly west of Gibraltar to the far north-western part of Italy. In France, it again reaches the Atlantic coast and occurs as far north as Morbihan. It is found from sea level up to altitudes of around 1,390 m ( Hofmann & Tremewan, 2020).

Figure 1. Voucher photograph of the Zygaena sarpedon (ilZygSarp1) specimen used for genome sequencing.

Figure 1.

The species is highly aposematic, with a red and black colour pattern, and shows considerable intraspecific variation. Very different-looking populations are often found in close proximity, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, but there are also broad transitional zones in central Spain. The pattern varies from almost confluent red spots on the forewings and red hindwings with a thin black border, to melanistic forms with largely black forewings with three small red spots and entirely black hindwings. A population containing both confluent red and melanistic specimens, as well as intermediates, occurs near Benidorm in Spain, while entirely melanistic populations occur to the north of this locality and entirely red, confluent populations to the south. Wings are more or less translucent or transparent depending on the population. The flight is strong and direct. There is also considerable size variation, with wingspan ranging from 21 to 31 mm ( Hofmann & Tremewan, 2020).

Z. sarpedon, like all Zygaena species so far tested, probably contains cyanogenic glucosides (e.g. Davis & Nahrstedt, 1982). The larvae feed only on a few species in the genus Eryngium (Apiaceae), which is also the main nectar plant of the adults ( Hofmann & Tremewan, 2020 and references therein). This plant genus is acyanogenic, and therefore Z. sarpedon cannot sequester cyanogenic glucosides from its host plant, as has been demonstrated in Zygaena species feeding on cyanogenic host plants in the family Fabaceae ( Nahrstedt & Davis, 1986; Zagrobelny et al., 2014). Instead, the larvae synthesise the compounds themselves, as is likely the case for all species in the subgenus Mesembrynus, none of which utilise cyanogenic host plants ( Hofmann & Tremewan, 2017). The larvae are parasitised by the eulophid wasp Dermatopelte budensis Erdos & Novicky, 1951 ( Askew et al., 2008).

The species is usually found in rather dry, sandy or calcareous habitats, including roadsides, abandoned quarries and olive plantations. Increasing bushy encroachment and more intensive use of such ruderal habitats can both lead to local disappearance of the species. In France, the species is classified as Near Threatened in Occitanie ( Louboutin et al., 2019), Pays de la Loire ( Chevreau et al., 2021) and Rhône-Alpes ( Baillet & Guicherd, 2018), and as Least Concern in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur ( Bence & Richaud, 2024). It does not appear to have been assessed in Italy, Spain or Portugal, and is not listed in the IUCN European Red List.

Methods

Sample acquisition

The specimen used for genome sequencing was an adult male Zygaena sarpedon (specimen ID SAN28000391, ToLID ilZygSarp1; Figure 1), collected from Coratxà, La Pobla De Benifassà, Castelló, Valencia Community, Spain (latitude 40.6979, longitude 0.1048; elevation 1,152 m) on 2020-07-01. The specimen was collected and identified by Roger Vila and Joan Carles Hinojosa (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva).

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). For HMW DNA extraction, tissue from the whole organism of ilZygSarp1 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 Femto Pulse system. For this sample, the final post-shearing DNA had a Qubit concentration of 43.84 ng/μL and a yield of 2,060.48 ng, with a fragment size of 13.4 kb. The 260/280 spectrophotometric ratio was 1.93, and the 260/230 ratio was 2.19. The Genomic Quality Number (GQN) was 6.1.

PacBio HiFi library preparation and sequencing

Library preparation and sequencing took place in the WSI Scientific Operations core. Library PSYCHE15052775 was prepared with the SMRTbell Prep Kit 3.0 (Pacific Biosciences) according to 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 with a Qubit Fluorometer v4.0 (Thermo Fisher 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 library was sequenced on a Revio instrument (Pacific Biosciences, California, USA). The prepared libraries selected for multiplexing were pooled based on genome size, library molarity and the intended plex level. Primers were annealed and polymerases were bound to generate circularised complexes following the manufacturer’s instructions. Complexes were purified using SMRTbell beads, diluted to the Revio loading concentration, and spiked with a Revio sequencing internal control. The pooled libraries were sequenced on a Revio 25M Plex SMRT cell in a 2-plex run. SMRT Link software (Pacific Biosciences) was used to configure and monitor the run and to perform primary and secondary data analysis.

Hi-C

Sample preparation and crosslinking

Hi-C data were generated from the ilZygSarp1 whole organism 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. Libraries were amplified with 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 to create 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. Libraries were sequenced on the Illumina NovaSeq X, generating paired-end 150-bp 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. The k-mer frequency distribution was analysed with GenomeScope (version 2.1.0) ( Ranallo-Benavidez et al., 2020), providing fitted point estimates of genome size, heterozygosity and repeat content.

The HiFi reads were assembled using Hifiasm in Hi-C phasing mode ( Cheng et al., 2021, 2022), producing two haplotypes. Hi-C reads ( Rao et al. , 2014) were mapped to 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 MerquryFK ( 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, using the mitochondrial genome of Phauda flammans (NC_047243.1) as the reference.

Assembly curation

The assembly was decontaminated using the Assembly Screen for Cobionts and Contaminants ( ASCC) pipeline. The flat files and maps for curation were generated with TreeVal. 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). The two haplotype assemblies were combined for curation. Manual corrections included 34 breaks and 91 joins, which reduced the scaffold count by 50.0%. The curation process is described at sanger-tol/curation-resources. A Hi-C contact map of the haplotype 1 assembly was generated with PretextSnapshot.

Assembly quality assessment

The MerquryFK tool ( Rhie et al., 2020), run in a Singularity container ( Kurtzer et al., 2017), was used 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 haplotype 1 assembly was assessed using BlobToolKit ( Challis et al., 2020). PacBio reads were mapped to the haplotype 1 assembly to derive sequence coverage, and BUSCO ( Manni et al., 2021) was used to assess gene-set completeness. DIAMOND BLASTp searches of extracted BUSCO proteins and DIAMOND BLASTx searches of assembly sequences against UniProt Reference Proteomes ( Buchfink et al., 2021), followed by BLASTn searches of sequences without DIAMOND BLASTx hits against the NCBI nt database ( Altschul et al., 1990), supported taxonomic assignment. Coverage, sequence composition, taxonomic assignment and BUSCO results were integrated into a BlobDir for interactive inspection and visualisation. The snail and blob plots were rendered locally from this hosted BlobDir using BlobTk v0.8.3. The scaffold-length radial scale function for the snail plot was set to linear ( Challis & Blaxter, 2026). The blob plot used circular markers with area proportional to scaffold length ( Challis et al., 2020).

We used busco-alg-painter v0.1.0, a Python reimplementation and extension of lep_busco_painter, to paint Merian elements along chromosomes. Merian elements represent the 32 ancestral linkage groups reconstructed for Lepidoptera ( Wright et al., 2024). The BUSCO-to-Merian reference assignments were derived from lep_busco_painter. Complete single-copy and duplicated BUSCO genes from the lepidoptera_odb10 results were assigned to Merian elements. Chromosome identifiers and lengths were obtained from NCBI Datasets, and BUSCO positions were plotted on chromosomes drawn to scale.

Genome sequence report

Sequence data

PacBio sequencing of the Z. sarpedon specimen generated 39.70 Gb (gigabases) from 3.99 million reads. We assembled the genome from these reads. GenomeScope analysis using a p = 2 model gave a k-mer-based haploid genome size estimate of 334.97 Mb, with heterozygosity of 1.99% and repeat content of 26.07%; the full-model fit was 96.19% (Figure 2). The GenomeScope estimates guided expectations for the assembly. The sequencing data provided approximately 115× coverage of the haplotype 1 assembly. Hi-C sequencing produced 130.67 Gb from 432.67 million reads, which were used to scaffold the haplotype 1 assembly. Table 1 summarises the specimen and sequencing details.

Figure 2. GenomeScope model fitted to the k-mer frequency distribution.

Figure 2.

The plot shows the observed and modelled k-mer spectra used to estimate genome size, heterozygosity and repeat content from unassembled sequencing reads.

Table 1. Specimen and sequencing data for Z. sarpedon (BioProject PRJEB81941).

Platform PacBio HiFi Hi-C
ToLID ilZygSarp1 ilZygSarp1
Specimen ID SAN28000391 SAN28000391
BioSample (source individual) SAMEA115770396 SAMEA115770396
BioSample (tissue) SAMEA115770406 SAMEA115770406
Tissue whole organism whole organism
Instrument Revio (1 run) Illumina NovaSeq X
Library ID & run accession(s) PSYCHE15052775: ERR13917241 ERR13925963
Read count total 3.99 million reads 432.67 million read pairs
Base count total 39.70 Gb 130.67 Gb

Assembly statistics

The genome was assembled into two haplotypes using Hi-C phasing. The haplotype 1 assembly was curated to chromosome level, while haplotype 2 was assembled to scaffold level. The haplotype 1 assembly, which is proposed as the reference assembly for this species, has a total length of 342.18 Mb in 38 scaffolds (excluding organelle sequences), with 86 gaps, and a scaffold N50 of 12.19 Mb (Table 2). The haplotype 1 assembly has a scaffold auN of 12.0 Mb.

Table 2. Genome assembly statistics for Z. sarpedon .

Genome assembly Haplotype 1 Haplotype 2
Assembly name ilZygSarp1.hap1.1 ilZygSarp1.hap2.1
Assembly accession GCA_964338965.1 GCA_964339015.1
Assembly level chromosome scaffold
Span (Mb) 342.18 341.53
Number of chromosomes 30 -
Number of contigs 124 137
Contig N50 (Mb) 6.88 6.65
Number of scaffolds (excluding organelle sequences) 38 36
Scaffold N50 (Mb) 12.19 12.25
Scaffold auN (Mb) 12.0 12.0
Longest scaffold length (Mb) 15.37 15.51
Sex chromosomes Z -
Organelles Mitochondrial genome: 15.98 kb -

Most of the haplotype 1 assembly sequence (99.96%) was assigned to 30 chromosome-level scaffolds, representing 29 autosomes and the Z sex chromosome. These chromosome-level scaffolds, confirmed by Hi-C data, are named according to size (Figure 3; Table 3). Chromosome painting of the haplotype 1 assembly with Merian elements illustrates the distribution of orthologues along chromosomes and highlights patterns of chromosomal evolution relative to Lepidopteran ancestral linkage groups (Figure 4). The exact order and orientation of the contigs on chromosome 28 (1.9–2.5 Mbp) are unknown. The Z chromosome of the haplotype 1 assembly was assigned based on the presence of the ancestral Merian element MZ ( Wright et al., 2024).

Figure 3. Hi-C contact map of the Z. sarpedon haplotype 1 assembly.

Figure 3.

Assembled chromosomes are shown in order of size and labelled along the axes. The plot was generated using PretextSnapshot.

Figure 4. Merian elements painted across chromosomes in the ilZygSarp1.hap1.1 haplotype 1 assembly of Z. sarpedon.

Figure 4.

Chromosomes are drawn to scale, with the positions of orthologues shown as coloured bars. Each orthologue is coloured by the Merian element that it belongs to. All orthologues which could be assigned to Merian elements are shown.

The mitochondrial genome was also assembled (length 15.98 kb, OZ202049.1). This sequence is included as a contig in the multifasta file of the haplotype 1 genome submission and as a standalone record.

Table 3. Chromosomal pseudomolecules in the haplotype 1 genome assembly of Z. sarpedon ilZygSarp1.

INSDC accession Molecule Length (Mb) GC% Assigned Merian elements
OZ202020.1 1 15.23 37 M17; M20
OZ202021.1 2 15.05 36.50 M2
OZ202022.1 3 14.98 36.50 MZ
OZ202023.1 4 14.76 37 M3
OZ202024.1 5 14.29 36.50 M9
OZ202025.1 6 14.25 36.50 M8
OZ202026.1 7 13.26 36.50 M5
OZ202027.1 8 12.82 36.50 M12
OZ202028.1 9 12.74 36.50 M4
OZ202029.1 10 12.51 36 M18
OZ202030.1 11 12.38 37 M7
OZ202031.1 12 12.19 37 M6
OZ202032.1 13 11.84 36 M16
OZ202033.1 14 11.51 36.50 M21
OZ202034.1 15 11.49 37 M11
OZ202035.1 16 11.47 36.50 M15
OZ202036.1 17 11.16 37 M10
OZ202037.1 18 10.93 36.50 M22
OZ202038.1 19 10.29 39 M30; M31
OZ202039.1 20 10.27 37 M14
OZ202040.1 21 10.23 36.50 M13
OZ202041.1 22 10.07 36.50 M23
OZ202042.1 23 8.32 37 M28
OZ202043.1 24 8.26 37.50 M19
OZ202044.1 25 8.25 36.50 M24
OZ202045.1 26 8.07 36.50 M26
OZ202046.1 27 7.25 36.50 M27
OZ202047.1 28 6.64 39 M29
OZ202048.1 29 6.17 37.50 M25
OZ202019.1 Z 15.37 37 M1

Assembly quality metrics

For the haplotype 1 assembly, the estimated QV is 66.1, and for the haplotype 2 assembly, 66.1. When the two haplotypes are combined, the assembly achieves an estimated QV of 66.1. The k-mer completeness is 68.83% for the haplotype 1 assembly, 68.79% for the haplotype 2 assembly, and 99.76% for the combined haplotypes (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Evaluation of k-mer completeness using MerquryFK.

Figure 5.

This plot illustrates the recovery of k‐mers from the original read data in the haplotype 1 assembly, the haplotype 2 assembly and the combined haplotypes. 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 97.9% of the expected gene set (single = 97.5%, duplicated = 0.4%) in the haplotype 1 assembly. For the haplotype 2 assembly, BUSCO analysis identified 98.0% of the expected gene set (single = 97.6%, duplicated = 0.4%).

The snail plot in Figure 6 provides a summary of assembly contiguity, cumulative scaffold count, sequence composition and BUSCO completeness for the haplotype 1 assembly ( Challis & Blaxter, 2026). The relative sizes of the longest scaffold, scaffold N50 and N90, together with the dark-grey scaffold-length distribution, show how much of the assembly is contained in long scaffolds. The outer composition track shows variation in GC, AT and N content, while the central track shows the cumulative scaffold count and the BUSCO inset summarises gene-set completeness.

Figure 6. Assembly metrics for ilZygSarp1.hap1.1, the haplotype 1 assembly.

Figure 6.

The BlobToolKit snail plot provides an overview of assembly metrics and BUSCO gene completeness. The circumference represents the length of the haplotype 1 assembly, 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. Scaffold length is shown on a linear radial scale, scaled to the longest scaffold. Red shading indicates the longest scaffold, and the deeper orange and pale orange shading represent the N50 and N90 lengths. The summary statistics include scaffold auN, the area under the scaffold Nx curve. The 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 lepidoptera_odb10 set is presented at the top right. The assembly can be explored interactively in the BlobToolKit viewer.

The blob plot in Figure 7 displays scaffolds from the haplotype 1 assembly by GC proportion and base coverage. Marker area is proportional to scaffold length, and colour indicates taxonomic assignment ( Challis et al., 2020).

Figure 7. BlobToolKit blob plot for ilZygSarp1.hap1.1, the haplotype 1 assembly.

Figure 7.

The plot shows base coverage (vertical axis) and GC content (horizontal axis). Circles represent scaffolds; marker area is proportional to scaffold length, and colour indicates taxonomic assignment. The histograms along the axes display the total length of sequences distributed across different levels of coverage and GC content. The assembly can be explored interactively in the BlobToolKit viewer.

Table 4 lists the assembly metric benchmarks adapted from Rhie et al.. (2021) the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP) Report on Assembly Standards. The three-part EBP metric, calculated for the haplotype 1 assembly, is 6.C.Q66.

Table 4. Earth BioGenome Project summary metrics for the Z. sarpedon assembly.

Measure Value Benchmark
EBP summary (haplotype 1) 6.C.Q66 6.C.Q40
Contig N50 length 6.88 Mb > 1 Mb
Scaffold N50 length 12.19 Mb = chromosome N50
Consensus quality (QV) Haplotype 1: 66.1; haplotype 2: 66.1; combined: 66.1 ≥ 40
k-mer completeness Haplotype 1: 68.83%; Haplotype 2: 68.79%; combined: 99.76% > 90%
BUSCO Haplotype 1: C:97.9% [S:97.5%, D:0.4%], F:0.4%, M:1.7%, n:5,286; Haplotype 2: C:98.0% [S:97.6%, D:0.4%], F:0.4%, M:1.6%, n:5,286 S > 90%; D < 5%
Percentage of assembly assigned to chromosomes 99.96% ≥ 90%

Notes: The EBP summary uses log10(Contig N50); chromosome-level (C) or log10(Scaffold N50); Q (Merqury QV). BUSCO v5.5.0 using the lepidoptera_odb10 lineage dataset: C=complete; S=single-copy; D=duplicated; F=fragmented; M=missing; n=orthologues.

Genome annotation report

The Z. sarpedon genome assembly (GCA_964338965.1) was annotated by Ensembl at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI). The annotation comprises 21,781 transcripts from 12,067 protein-coding genes and 1,836 non-coding genes. The average transcript length is 12,231.37 bp, with an average of 1.57 coding transcripts per gene and 7.02 exons per transcript. For further information, please refer to the Ensembl annotation page.

Data availability

European Nucleotide Archive: Zygaena sarpedon. Accession number: PRJEB81941; URL: https://identifiers.org/ena.embl/PRJEB81941. The genome sequence is released openly for reuse. The Z. sarpedon genome sequencing initiative is part of the Sanger Institute Tree of Life Programme ( PRJEB43745) and Project Psyche ( PRJEB71705). All raw sequence data and the haplotype assemblies have been deposited in INSDC databases. Raw data and assembly accession identifiers are reported in Table 1 and Table 2.

Pipelines used for genome assembly at the WSI Tree of Life are available at https://pipelines.tol.sanger.ac.uk/pipelines. Table 5 lists software versions used in this study.

Table 5. Software versions and sources used for Z. sarpedon .

Software Version Source
BLAST 2.14.0 https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/executables/blast+/
BlobToolKit 4.3.9 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtoolkit
BlobTk (hosted BlobDir) 0.5.1 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtk
BlobTk (snail and blob plot renderer) 0.8.3 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtk
BUSCO 5.5.0 https://gitlab.com/ezlab/busco
busco-alg-painter 0.1.0 https://github.com/Karenvn/busco-alg-painter
bwa-mem2 2.2.1 https://github.com/bwa-mem2/bwa-mem2
DIAMOND 2.1.8 https://github.com/bbuchfink/diamond
fasta_windows 0.2.4 https://github.com/tolkit/fasta_windows
FastK 1.2 https://github.com/thegenemyers/FASTK
GenomeScope 2.1.0 https://github.com/tbenavi1/genomescope2.0
Gfastats 1.3.6 https://github.com/vgl-hub/gfastats
Hifiasm 0.19.8-r603 https://github.com/chhylp123/hifiasm
HiGlass 1.13.4 https://github.com/higlass/higlass
MerquryFK 1.1.0-c1 https://github.com/thegenemyers/MERQURY.FK
Minimap2 2.24-r1122 https://github.com/lh3/minimap2
MitoHiFi 3.2.2 https://github.com/marcelauliano/MitoHiFi
MultiQC 1.14; 1.17 and 1.18 https://github.com/MultiQC/MultiQC
Nextflow 23.10.0 https://github.com/nextflow-io/nextflow
PretextSnapshot 0.0.6 https://github.com/sanger-tol/PretextSnapshot
PretextView 1.0.3 https://github.com/sanger-tol/PretextView
samtools 1.19.2 https://github.com/samtools/samtools
sanger-tol/ascc 0.1.0 https://github.com/sanger-tol/ascc
sanger-tol/blobtoolkit 0.6.0 https://github.com/sanger-tol/blobtoolkit
sanger-tol/curationpretext 1.4.2 https://github.com/sanger-tol/curationpretext
Seqtk 1.4-r122 https://github.com/lh3/seqtk
Singularity 3.9.0 https://github.com/sylabs/singularity
TreeVal 1.1.1 https://github.com/sanger-tol/treeval
YaHS 1.2a.2 https://github.com/c-zhou/yahs

Author information

Contributors are listed at the following links:

Funding Statement

This work was supported by Wellcome through core funding to the Wellcome Sanger Institute [220540]. RV was supported by grant PID2022-139689NB-I00 (MICIU/ AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF, EU) and grant 2021-SGR-00420 (Departament de Recerca i Universitats, Generalitat de Catalunya).

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

[version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

References

  1. Allio R., Schomaker-Bastos A., Romiguier J., et al. : MitoFinder: Efficient automated large-scale extraction of mitogenomic data in target enrichment phylogenomics. Molecular Ecology Resources ;2020;20(4):892–905. 10.1111/1755-0998.13160 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Altschul S. F., Gish W., Miller W., et al. : Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. Journal of Molecular Biology ;1990;215(3):403–410. 10.1016/S0022-2836(05)80360-2 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Askew R. R., Shaw M. R., Yefremova Z. A.: Observations on Dermatopelte budensis Erdös & Novicky, 1951 (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae), a parasitoid of Zygaena Fabricius, 1775 (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae). Entomologist’s Gazette ;2008;59:233–239. [Google Scholar]
  4. Baillet Y., Guicherd G.: Dossier de présentation de la liste rouge Rhopalocères & Zygènes de Rhône-Alpes. Flavia APE.2018. Accessed: 2026-08-31. Reference Source [Google Scholar]
  5. Bence S., Richaud S.: Réévaluation de la liste rouge régionale des Lépidoptères Rhopalocères & Zygènes – Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA). Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.2024. Accessed: 2026-08-31. Reference Source [Google Scholar]
  6. Buchfink B., Reuter K., Drost H.-G.: Sensitive protein alignments at tree-of-life scale using DIAMOND. Nature Methods ;2021;18(4):366–368. 10.1038/s41592-021-01101-x [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Challis R., Richards E., Rajan J., et al. : BlobToolKit – interactive quality assessment of genome assemblies. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics ;2020;10(4):1361–1374. 10.1534/g3.119.400908 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Challis Richard, Blaxter Mark: Snail plots are badges of genome assembly quality. G3 Genes|Genomes|Genetics ;2026;16(6):jkag074. 10.1093/g3journal/jkag074 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Cheng H., Jarvis E. D., Fedrigo O., et al. : Haplotype-resolved assembly of diploid genomes without parental data. Nature Biotechnology ;2022;40(9):1332–1335. 10.1038/s41587-022-01261-x [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Cheng H., Concepcion G. T., Feng X., et al. : Haplotype-resolved de novo assembly using phased assembly graphs with Hifiasm. Nature Methods ;2021;18(2):170–175. 10.1038/s41592-020-01056-5 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Chevreau J., Cherpitel T., Banasiak M., et al. : Liste rouge régionale des Papillons de jour et des Zygènes de Pays de la Loire: Rapport technique. DREAL Pays de la Loire; Région Pays de la Loire.2021. Accessed: 2026-08-31. Reference Source [Google Scholar]
  12. Davis R. H., Nahrstedt A.: Occurrence and variation of the cyanogenic glucosides linamarin and lotaustralin in species of the Zygaenidae (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Comparative Biochemistry ;1982;71(2):329–332. 10.1016/0305-0491(82)90266-8 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  13. Formenti G., Abueg L., Brajuka A., et al. : Gfastats: Conversion, evaluation and manipulation of genome sequences using assembly graphs. Bioinformatics ;2022;38(17):4214–4216. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac460 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Hofmann A., Tremewan W. G.: The natural history of Burnet Moths. Part I . Münich: Museum Witt;2017. [Google Scholar]
  15. Hofmann A., Tremewan W. G.: The natural history of Burnet Moths. Part III.1 . Münich: Museum Witt;2020. [Google Scholar]
  16. Howard Caroline, Denton Amy, Jackson Benjamin W., et al. : On the path to reference genomes for all biodiversity: Laboratory protocols and lessons learned from processing over 2,000 species in the Sanger Tree of Life. GigaScience ;2025;14giaf119. Reference Source 10.1093/gigascience/giaf119 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Howe K., Chow W., Collins J., et al. : Significantly improving the quality of genome assemblies through curation. GigaScience ;2021;10(1):giaa153. 10.1093/gigascience/giaa153 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Kerpedjiev P., Abdennur N., Lekschas F., et al. : HiGlass: Web-based visual exploration and analysis of genome interaction maps. Genome Biology ;2018;19(1):125. 10.1186/s13059-018-1486-1 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kurtzer G. M., Sochat V., Bauer M. W.: Singularity: Scientific containers for mobility of compute. PLOS ONE ;2017;12(5):e0177459. 10.1371/journal.pone.0177459 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Louboutin B., Jaulin S., Charlot B., et al. : Liste rouge des Lépidoptères Rhopalocères et Zygènes d’Occitanie: Rapport d’évaluation. OPIE, CEN MP; CEN LR, Montferrier / Lez.2019. Accessed: 2026-08-31. Reference Source [Google Scholar]
  21. Manni Mosè, Berkeley Matthew R, Seppey Mathieu, et al. : BUSCO update: Novel and streamlined workflows along with broader and deeper phylogenetic coverage for scoring of eukaryotic, prokaryotic, and viral genomes. Molecular Biology and Evolution ;2021;38(10):4647–4654. 10.1093/molbev/msab199 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Nahrstedt A., Davis R. H.: Uptake of linamarin and lotaustralin from their foodplant by larvae of Zygaena trifolii . Phytochemistry ;1986;25(10):2299–2302. 10.1016/S0031-9422(00)81683-0 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  23. Ranallo-Benavidez Timothy R., Jaron Kai S., Schatz Michael C.: GenomeScope 2.0 and Smudgeplot for reference-free profiling of polyploid genomes. Nature Communications ;2020;11(1):1432. 10.1038/s41467-020-14998-3 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Rao S. S. P., Huntley M. H., Durand N. C., et al. : A 3D map of the human genome at kilobase resolution reveals principles of chromatin looping. Cell ;2014;159(7):1665–1680. 10.1016/j.cell.2014.11.021 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Rhie A., Walenz B. P., Koren S., et al. : Merqury: Reference-free quality, completeness, and phasing assessment for genome assemblies. Genome Biology ;2020;21(1):245. 10.1186/s13059-020-02134-9 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Rhie A., McCarthy S. A., Fedrigo O., et al. : Towards complete and error-free genome assemblies of all vertebrate species. Nature ;2021;592(7856):737–746. 10.1038/s41586-021-03451-0 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Uliano-Silva M., Ferreira J. G. R. N., Krasheninnikova K., et al. : MitoHiFi: A Python pipeline for mitochondrial genome assembly from PacBio high fidelity reads. BMC Bioinformatics ;2023;24(1):288. 10.1186/s12859-023-05385-y [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Vasimuddin Md., Misra S., Li H., et al. : Efficient architecture-aware acceleration of BWA-MEM for multicore systems. 2019 IEEE international parallel and distributed processing symposium (IPDPS) . IEEE.2019.314–324. 10.1109/IPDPS.2019.00041 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  29. Wright Charlotte J., Stevens Lewis, Mackintosh Alexander, et al. : Comparative genomics reveals the dynamics of chromosome evolution in Lepidoptera. Nature Ecology & Evolution ;2024;8(4):777–790. 10.1038/s41559-024-02329-4 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Zagrobelny M., Olsen C. E., Pentzold S., et al. : Sequestration, tissue distribution and developmental transmission of cyanogenic glucosides in a specialist insect herbivore. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology ;2014;44:44–53. 10.1016/j.ibmb.2013.11.003 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Zhou C., McCarthy S. A., Durbin R.: YaHS: Yet another Hi-C scaffolding tool. Bioinformatics ;2023;39(1):btac808. 10.1093/bioinformatics/btac808 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Wellcome Open Res. 2026 Sep 28. doi: 10.21956/wellcomeopenres.30570.r168452

Reviewer response for version 1

Gen Morinaga 1

In the genome note titled “The genome sequence of the Royal Burnet, Zygaena Sarpedon Hubner, 1790 (Lepidoptera: Zygaenidae)”, Vila et al., combine PacBio HiFi sequencing with Hi-C sequencing to output a highly complete, highly contiguous chromosome scale assembly (haplotype 1), and a slightly less contiguous scaffold-level assembly (haplotype 2). They identified the Z sex chromosome and assembled the mitogenome as well (included as part of haplotype 1). They also include a map of the Merian elements identified in the chromosomes in haplotype 1.

The work presented is done to a high standard and uses state-of-the-art sequencing techniques and bioinformatics. The methods are adequately presented and documented. The writing is generally clear, but the authors use the passive voice over an active one (e.g., “The HiFi reads were assembled…” as opposed to “We assembled the HiFi reads…”). While not necessary for this manuscript, in future works, I would suggest to the authors to switch to an active voice because it helps to make the manuscript easier to read/follow and often helps to shorten sentences.

Are the datasets clearly presented in a usable and accessible format, and the assembly and annotation available in an appropriate subject-specific repository?

Yes

Are sufficient details of the sequencing and extraction, software used, and materials provided to allow replication by others?

Yes

Are the rationale for sequencing the genome and the species significance clearly described?

Yes

Are the protocols appropriate and is the work technically sound?

Yes

Reviewer Expertise:

Comparative genomics, genomics

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Wellcome Open Res. 2026 Sep 11.

Reviewer response for version 1

Automated Benchmarking 1

As this article is a Genome Note, Automated Benchmarking has been used to determine whether the reported assembly passes three defined checks established by the Earth BioGenome Project: the raw and assembled data are publicly available, the Earth BioGenome Project three-part metric is met, and the BUSCO score passes the stated threshold. For Zygaena sarpedon (ilZygSarp1), all three checks passed. Data available: pass. ENA study PRJEB81941, raw-read accessions ERR13917241 and ERR13925963, and assembly accessions GCA_964338965.1 and GCA_964339015.1 are public. Earth BioGenome Project three-part metric: pass. Haplotype 1 is reported as 6.C.Q66, meeting the 6.C.Q40 reference standard. BUSCO: pass. Haplotype 1, which is proposed as the reference assembly for this species, has 97.9% complete BUSCOs (97.5% single-copy and 0.4% duplicated). It meets the target of greater than 90% complete and single-copy BUSCOs. This decision uses values reported in the Genome Note and public accession records.

Reviewer Expertise:

NA

I confirm that I have read this submission and believe that I have an appropriate level of expertise to confirm that it is of an acceptable scientific standard.

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Data Availability Statement

    European Nucleotide Archive: Zygaena sarpedon. Accession number: PRJEB81941; URL: https://identifiers.org/ena.embl/PRJEB81941. The genome sequence is released openly for reuse. The Z. sarpedon genome sequencing initiative is part of the Sanger Institute Tree of Life Programme ( PRJEB43745) and Project Psyche ( PRJEB71705). All raw sequence data and the haplotype assemblies have been deposited in INSDC databases. Raw data and assembly accession identifiers are reported in Table 1 and Table 2.

    Pipelines used for genome assembly at the WSI Tree of Life are available at https://pipelines.tol.sanger.ac.uk/pipelines. Table 5 lists software versions used in this study.

    Table 5. Software versions and sources used for Z. sarpedon .

    Software Version Source
    BLAST 2.14.0 https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/executables/blast+/
    BlobToolKit 4.3.9 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtoolkit
    BlobTk (hosted BlobDir) 0.5.1 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtk
    BlobTk (snail and blob plot renderer) 0.8.3 https://github.com/genomehubs/blobtk
    BUSCO 5.5.0 https://gitlab.com/ezlab/busco
    busco-alg-painter 0.1.0 https://github.com/Karenvn/busco-alg-painter
    bwa-mem2 2.2.1 https://github.com/bwa-mem2/bwa-mem2
    DIAMOND 2.1.8 https://github.com/bbuchfink/diamond
    fasta_windows 0.2.4 https://github.com/tolkit/fasta_windows
    FastK 1.2 https://github.com/thegenemyers/FASTK
    GenomeScope 2.1.0 https://github.com/tbenavi1/genomescope2.0
    Gfastats 1.3.6 https://github.com/vgl-hub/gfastats
    Hifiasm 0.19.8-r603 https://github.com/chhylp123/hifiasm
    HiGlass 1.13.4 https://github.com/higlass/higlass
    MerquryFK 1.1.0-c1 https://github.com/thegenemyers/MERQURY.FK
    Minimap2 2.24-r1122 https://github.com/lh3/minimap2
    MitoHiFi 3.2.2 https://github.com/marcelauliano/MitoHiFi
    MultiQC 1.14; 1.17 and 1.18 https://github.com/MultiQC/MultiQC
    Nextflow 23.10.0 https://github.com/nextflow-io/nextflow
    PretextSnapshot 0.0.6 https://github.com/sanger-tol/PretextSnapshot
    PretextView 1.0.3 https://github.com/sanger-tol/PretextView
    samtools 1.19.2 https://github.com/samtools/samtools
    sanger-tol/ascc 0.1.0 https://github.com/sanger-tol/ascc
    sanger-tol/blobtoolkit 0.6.0 https://github.com/sanger-tol/blobtoolkit
    sanger-tol/curationpretext 1.4.2 https://github.com/sanger-tol/curationpretext
    Seqtk 1.4-r122 https://github.com/lh3/seqtk
    Singularity 3.9.0 https://github.com/sylabs/singularity
    TreeVal 1.1.1 https://github.com/sanger-tol/treeval
    YaHS 1.2a.2 https://github.com/c-zhou/yahs

    Articles from Wellcome Open Research are provided here courtesy of The Wellcome Trust

    RESOURCES