Chromosome-level genome assembly of the planthopper Nilaparvata muiri

Abstract

Abstract The Nilaparvata muiri (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) is a sibling species of a destructive rice insect pest, the brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens. Here, we generated a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly of N. muiri using a combination of the PacBio HiFi sequencing, Illumina short-read sequencing and Hi-C scaffolding technologies. The genome assembly (524.9 Mb) is anchored to 15 pseudochromosomes, with a scaffold N50 of 43.3 Mb and 99.1% BUSCO completeness. It contains 188.1 Mb repeat sequences and 13204 protein-coding genes. As a closely related species within the same genus as the significant pest, N. lugens, the chromosome-level genome assembly of N. muiri will provide important support for the better analysis of pathogenicity mechanisms of N. lugens based on comparative genomics.