A High-Quality Chromosome-Level Assembly Genome Provides Insights into Wing Dimorphism and Xenobiotic Detoxification in Metopolophium Dirhodum (Walker)

The rose-grain aphid, Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is one of the most important aphid pests of cereals worldwide. Some studies have examined the biological and ecological characteristics of M. dirhodum . However, the lack of genomic data limits in-depth studies for this organism. Here, we presented a chromosome-level genome assembly of M. dirhodum using PacBio long HiFi reads and Hi-C technology. The final genome assembly is 447.8 Mb, with 98.50% of the assembled sequences anchored into nine chromosomes. The contig and scaffold N50 values are 7.82 Mb and 37.54 Mb, respectively. 18,003 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 92.05% were functionally annotated. Transcriptome sequencing was performed between wingless and winged M. dirhodum , and ecdysone signaling is identified to be involved in wing dimorphism. High titers of ecdysone may promote the expression of E74A , BR-C and FTZ-F1 through ECR , and then induce more wingless individuals. Many detoxification enzyme genes showed different expression patterns between wingless and winged M. dirhodum , indicating the wing dimorphism is accompanied by a parallel change of detoxification mechanism. These results may provide an important reference for understanding the evolution, wing dimorphism and detoxification metabolic of this organism or even other Aphid insects.