Comparative Genomics of Bee Sociality Using 10x Linked-Read Sequencing

Social behavior, particular that of eusocial societies, has garnered significant attention in evolutionary biology. Though several studies have attempted to identify the genetic underpinnings of this curious shift in behavior, full genome sequences are, thus far, available only for distantly related species, making the identification of clear connections between genotype and behavior difficult. In halictid bees eusociality has been repeatedly gained and lost, generating substantial variation among closely related species and making it an ideal group for studying the evolution of social behavior. To identify the common molecular mechanisms underlying loss and maintenance of social behavior in this system, we are sequencing the genomes of six eusocial species and six closely related, solitary species. While de novo genome sequencing has become relatively straightforward over the last decade, challenges persist and the now-standard approaches typically require substantial bench-work and large amounts of DNA starting material. Given these limitations, we instead sequenced these species using 10x linked-read technology, assembling the resulting data with the Supernova software. Although the quality of these assemblies varies, N50 lengths are almost always of several million bases, an achievement that previously required the use of multiple technologies and came at substantially greater cost. The linked-read libraries produced by 10x Genomics are making the comparison of many non-model genomes far more tractable, enabling comparative full-genome analyses and providing insights into the evolution of eusociality.