The highly diverse repertoire of transposable elements within the genomes of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae).

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) are known to be major components of eukaryotic genomes and impact genome evolution and architecture, including in the speciose lineage of Insecta. Although new and increased efforts have allowed for more insect genomes to become available, our understanding of insect TE diversity across various lineages is poor. This lack of knowledge is especially true in the hyper-diverse Hymenoptera (including bees, ants, wasps, and sawflies) which includes some of the most beneficial insects, such as pollinators and parasitoid (parasitic) wasps. Here, we present the order-level TE composition and analyze its phylogenetic signal across the Braconidae (Hymenoptera), a very diverse lineage of parasitic wasps. Further we investigate the effect of TEs on genome size and note a positive relationship that has some distinct lineage specific differences. Despite phylogenetically conserved genome sizes within Braconidae, we found that TE abundance and diversity was not phylogenetically conserved and was highly variable across taxa, more so than what has been reported for other insect lineages. This represents the first comparative genomic analysis of TEs in a lineage of parasitic wasps and increases our understanding of the diversity of TE composition across related taxa.