Photo: Zach Cohen
The Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, genome paper has just been published in Scientific Reports. Sean Schoville, University of Wisconsin and I coordinated a group of 58 scientists from 33 institutions to manually annotate the genome.
Although the beetle has been notorious for its ability to rapidly evolve to a range of different types of environmental conditions, climates, host plants and insecticides, we were surprised that we did not find that the beetle had more genes for detoxifying pesticides compared to other more innocuous beetle species.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20154-1
University of Madison Press release
Colorado potato beetle genome gives insight into major agricultural pest
UVM Communications Story
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=news&storyID=25516
Science Daily Coverage
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180131090308.htm