Assembly of a high-quality reference genome for the rat tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta
- 1Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Georgia , Athens, GA 30602 ,
- 2Department of Genetics, University of Georgia , Athens, GA 30602 ,
- 3Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia , Athens, GA 30602 ,
Abstract
The rat tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta, is an important laboratory model for uncovering molecular processes that underly the success of tapeworms as parasites. Despite its importance, a high-quality reference genome for this species is lacking. Here we present a highly contiguous and effectively complete genome of H. diminuta assembled from PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing data. Our primary assembly consists of 7 scaffolds (N50 = 29.25 Mb) with total length of 186.53 Mb, has only 7 gaps, and contains 95.7% complete Lophotrochozoan BUSCOs. Our assembly allows us to confirm aspects of Hymenolepis genome organization, such as high repeat content and unusual chromosomal ends, and to show that Hymenolepis genomes encode ∼10,000 genes. Together with annotations of nuclear tRNAs, mtDNA protein coding genes, and mtDNA tRNAs, our assembly currently provides one of the most complete genome resources for a tapeworm species and will enable research on parasitism, animal regeneration, development, and evolution.
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BibTeX
@article{choudhary2026assembly,
title = {{Assembly of a high-quality reference genome for the rat tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta}},
author = {Saurav K Choudhary and Nikitha Sundaresha and Kaixiong Ye and Casey M Bergman and Tania Rozario},
journal = {G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1093/g3journal/jkag298},
url = {https://academic.oup.com/g3journal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/g3journal/jkag298/9002695},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Assembly of a high-quality reference genome for the rat tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta
AU - Saurav K Choudhary
AU - Nikitha Sundaresha
AU - Kaixiong Ye
AU - Casey M Bergman
AU - Tania Rozario
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics
DO - 10.1093/g3journal/jkag298
UR - https://academic.oup.com/g3journal/advance-article/doi/10.1093/g3journal/jkag298/9002695
AB - The rat tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta, is an important laboratory model for uncovering molecular processes that underly the success of tapeworms as parasites. Despite its importance, a high-quality reference genome for this species is lacking. Here we present a highly contiguous and effectively complete genome of H. diminuta assembled from PacBio HiFi long-read sequencing data. Our primary assembly consists of 7 scaffolds (N50 = 29.25 Mb) with total length of 186.53 Mb, has only 7 gaps, and contains 95.7% complete Lophotrochozoan BUSCOs. Our assembly allows us to confirm aspects of Hymenolepis genome organization, such as high repeat content and unusual chromosomal ends, and to show that Hymenolepis genomes encode ∼10,000 genes. Together with annotations of nuclear tRNAs, mtDNA protein coding genes, and mtDNA tRNAs, our assembly currently provides one of the most complete genome resources for a tapeworm species and will enable research on parasitism, animal regeneration, development, and evolution.
SN - 2160-1836
ER -