An international team has sequenced the genome of the tobacco hornworm - a caterpillar species used in many research laboratories for studies of insect biology.
Michael Kanost, Kansas State University distinguished professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, led the team of 114 researchers from 50 institutions and 11 countries. Gary Blissard of the Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University is the co-senior author. The Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center performed the genome sequencing on samples prepared and purified by Kanost and the Kansas State University research team.
The researchers have published their work "Multifaceted biological insights from a draft genome sequence of the tobacco hornworm moth, Manduca sexta" in the journal Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.