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Volume 30, No 1, Jan 2020

ISSN: 1001-0602 
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018 
impact factor 17.848* 
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)

Volume 30 Issue 1, January 2020: 50-60

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Genomic landscape and genetic manipulation of the black soldier fly Hermetia illucens, a natural waste recycler

Shuai Zhan 1,2, Gangqi Fang 1,2, Minmin Cai3, Zongqing Kou1, Jun Xu1, Yanghui Cao1, Liang Bai1, Yixiang Zhang1,2, Yongmao Jiang 1,2, Xingyu Luo 1,2, Jian Xu 1,2, Xia Xu 1,2, Longyu Zheng3, Ziniu Yu3, Hong Yang4, Zhijian Zhang5, Sibao Wang 1,2, Jeffery K. Tomberlin6 ,Jibin Zhang3 and Yongping Huang 1,2

1 CAS Key Laboratory of Insect Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China; 2CAS Center for Excellence in Biotic Interactions, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; 3State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, National Engineering Research Center of Microbial Pesticides, College of Life Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China; 4Hubei Key Laboratory of Genetic Regulation and Integrative Biology, Institute of Entomology, School of Life Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei 430079, China; 5School of Economics, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China and 6Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, 2475 TAMU, College Station, TX 77845, USA
 Correspondence: Shuai Zhan (szhan@sibs.ac.cn) or Jeffery K. Tomberlin (jktomberlin@tamu.edu) or Jibin Zhang (zhangjb@mail.hzau.edu.cn) or Yongping Huang (yphuang@sibs.ac.cn)These authors contributed equally: Shuai Zhan, Gangqi Fang, Minmin Cai, Zongqing Kou

The black soldier fly (BSF), Hermetia illucens (Diptera: Stratiomyidae), is renowned for its bioconversion of organic waste into a sustainable source of animal feed. We report a high-quality genome of 1.1 Gb and a consensus set of 16,770 gene models for this beneficial species. Compared to those of other dipteran species, the BSF genome has undergone a substantial expansion in functional modules related to septic adaptation, including immune system factors, olfactory receptors, and cytochrome P450s. We further profiled midgut transcriptomes and associated microbiomes of BSF larvae fed with representative types of organic waste. We find that the pathways related to digestive system and fighting infection are commonly enriched and that Firmicutes bacteria dominate the microbial community in BSF across all diets. To extend its potential practical applications, we further developed an efficient CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing approach and implemented this to yield flightless and enhanced feeding capacity phenotypes, both of which could expand BSF production capabilities. Our study provides valuable genomic and technical resources for optimizing BSF lines for industrialization.


https://doi.org/10.1038/s41422-019-0252-6

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