Improved, reference quality genome sequence of the plastic-degrading greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella

Reginald Young; Khandaker Asif Ahmed; Leon Court; Cynthia Castro-Vargas; Anna Marcora; Joseph Boctor; Cate Paull; Gene Wijffels; Rahul Rane; Owain Edwards; Tom Walsh; Gunjan Pandey

doi:10.1093/g3journal/jkae070

Improved, reference quality genome sequence of the plastic-degrading greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella

G3 (Bethesda). 2024 Apr 2:jkae070. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkae070. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ CSIRO Environment, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia.
² CSIRO Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Geelong 3220, VIC, Australia.
³ CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Dutton Park, QLD 4102, Australia.
⁴ Bioplastics Innovation Hub, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
⁵ CSIRO Agriculture and Food, St. Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia.
⁶ CSIRO Health and Biosecurity, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia.
⁷ CSIRO Environment, Floreat, WA 6014, Australia.

PMID: 38564250
DOI: 10.1093/g3journal/jkae070

Abstract

Galleria mellonella is a pest of honeybees in many countries because its larvae feed on beeswax. However, G. mellonella larvae can also eat various plastics, including polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene, so the species is garnering increasing interest as a tool for plastic biodegradation research. This paper presents an improved genome (99.3% completed lepidoptera_odb10 BUSCO; genome mode) for G. mellonella. This 472 Mb genome is in 221 contigs with an N50 of 6.4 MB and contains 13,604 protein-coding genes. Genes that code for known and putative polyethylene-degrading enzymes and their similarity to proteins found in other Lepidoptera are highlighted. An analysis of secretory proteins more likely to be involved in the plastic catabolic process has also been carried out.

Keywords: bioremediation; genome assembly; plastic degradation; polyethylene; secretory proteins; wax moth.