Asian Long-horned Beetle Genome Project

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

About the Project

i5k: The Asian Longhorned Beetle Genome: Acollaboration with the 5000 genome project.
Asian long-horned beetle

Asian long-horned beetle

Image source:
U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons

The Anoplophora glabripennis genome sequence and its analysis has been published in Genome Biology, "Genome of the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis), a globally significant invasive species, reveals key functional and evolutionary innovations at the beetle–plant interface."

We at the BCM-HGSC would like to thank the many members of the Anoplophora community whose hard work has made this a successful project.

Contact: Duane McKenna

Researchers involved: 500
Size (or size of nearest relative): 981 MBp

Keywords (and why important): Evolutionary branching, (agriculture, ecosystem function, systematics).

About the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis)

The Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) (ALB) is an invasive pest from Asia that came to Canada, the United States and Europe concealed in solid wood packing material.

It is a serious threat to deciduous hardwood trees in urban, suburban, and forested parts of the country. Larvae bore into a tree's heartwood, damaging and eventually killing the tree. If it became widely established in North America (it is already established locally), it could be one of the most destructive and costly invasive species ever (USDA Program Aid No.1655). This is target of current USDA eradication efforts.

These beetles are large (1-1.5 inches), and one beetle can provide more than 10 micrograms of DNA. Specimens in North America are all relatively closely related. Suitable specimens are available for sequencing.

Genomic Resources


For the most current version of the assembly, please use 'NCBI BioProject' (find link below). If the assembly is unavailable in the BioProject page (it is still being worked on), you can look under the 'BCM-HGSC data' (find link below) for intermediate versions of the assembly.


Web Apollo: A web-based sequence annotation editor for community annotation

For information about Web Apollo, please contact Monica Poelchau.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis)