The genome of <i>Istocheta aldrichi</i> (Diptera: Tachinidae), a parasitoid of the Japanese beetle, <i>Popillia japonica</i> (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
ABSTRACT Istocheta aldrichi Mesnil 1953 (Diptera: Tachinidae), is native to Japan, and has recently become an important biological control agent of the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), a pest with >300 host plants, including roses, linden trees, and numerous agricultural crops. During the past decade, I. aldrichi ’s range has greatly expanded across North America, particularly in Quebec and Ontario, Canada, and in the Midwest U.S. In many areas, including Minnesota, 15-60% of Japanese beetles are parasitized by I. aldrichi , highlighting its importance as a natural enemy. To facilitate research on I. aldrichi and other tachinid flies we present a reference genome generated from a single individual. The final genome assembly is 875.3 Mbp contained in 1,041 scaffolds, with an N50 of 4.77 Mbp, and 99.5% complete Diptera BUSCOs present. We also present a complete mitogenome and use comparative genomics across 19 tachinid species to identify unique features of I. aldrichi . Specifically, we find that while many tachinid lineages have experienced contractions in gene families, I. aldrichi is characterized by a relatively high number of gene family expansions, many of which are predicted to function in metal ion transport. Tachinids as a whole have undergone rapid copy number changes in 935 gene families, largely related to metabolism and morphogenesis. The I. aldrichi reference genome will further research opportunities on these parasitic flies, including their potential for biocontrol of P. japonica . ARTICLE SUMMARY The parasitic fly Istocheta aldrichi attacks and kills the Japanese beetle ( Popillia japonica ), a pest of more than 300 plants. There is potential to leverage I. aldrichi for biological control of the beetle, but application is hindered by a limited understanding of this fly’s biology. This reference genome for I. aldrichi will enhance research future efforts and our ability to manage P. japonica .
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".