Construction of a HAPPY map for the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon Pisum

在过去的十年中，我们对许多生物体功能的理解因其基因组序列（DNA/遗传物质中的所有核苷酸）的可用性而大大促进。因此，我们现在有了某些哺乳动物（包括人类）、鸟类、鱼类、昆虫、植物和许多微生物的基因组序列。对于昆虫，第一个全基因组序列是果蝇，一种高度研究的模式物种，该序列在一个非常用户友好的基于网络的数据库“Fly Base”中，可供整个研究界使用，允许许多不同的用途。从那时起，许多其他昆虫的基因组已成为允许比较研究昆虫如何多样化和进化。现在正在进行一个项目，对一种绿蝇或蚜虫的基因组进行测序，这将把研究扩展到一种具有非常不同的生活史（没有蛹阶段）和非常有趣的行为的昆虫物种。在理想的世界里，测序将产生生物体的完整遗传“文本”，从一端到另一端跨越每条染色体，没有间隙。在现实中，这是永远不可能的。即使是最全面的测序项目也会产生一个支离破碎的序列，就像一个未绑定（和未编号）的文本页面的集合。就像一本书的书页必须被排序并被绑定以发挥最大的作用一样，重要的是要确定这些序列片段（称为“重叠群”）在基因组中的正确顺序。一旦完成，分析基因组序列，填补任何缺失的序列片段，评估其内容以及搜索特定特征就变得更加容易。要确定序列重叠群的顺序需要一张基因组图谱。这样的图谱就像一本书的索引：它告诉读者某些关键词（或基因序列的某些片段）在整本书中的位置。制作基因组图谱的方法有很多，但最通用和最准确的方法之一是被称为HAPPY作图。该提案旨在建立一个快乐地图，并与世界各地正在进行的其他项目相结合，最终为研究界提供一个“AphidBase”数据库。尽管目前正在进行的基因组测序将来自一种特定的蚜虫物种，但预计所获得的信息将与其他蚜虫非常相关，包括许多作为农作物重要害虫的蚜虫，它们既造成直接的摄食损害，又传播植物病毒疾病。因此，它将提供关于蚜虫如何对杀虫剂产生抗性，如何设计新农药以及不需要化学处理的潜在新控制策略的重要信息。

During the last decade our understanding of the functioning of many living organisms has been greatly facilitated by the availability of their genome sequences (all nucleotides in their DNA/heredity material). Thus we now have genome sequences for certain mammals (including humans), birds, fish, insects, plants and many micro-organisms. For insects the first full genome sequence was for the fruit fly, a highly studied model species, and the sequence, in a very user-friendly web-based database 'Fly Base', is available to the whole research community allowing many diverse uses. Since then many other insect genomes have become available allowing comparative studies of how insects have diversified and evolved. There is now a project underway to sequence the genome of a greenfly or aphid and this will extend studies to an insect species with a very different life-history (no pupal stage) and with very interesting behaviours. In an ideal world, sequencing would produce the complete genetic 'text' of the organism, spanning each chromosome from end to end without gaps. In reality, this is never possible. Even the most comprehensive sequencing projects produce a sequence which is fragmentary, like a collection of unbound (and un-numbered) pages of text. Just as the pages of a book must be ordered and bound to be of greatest use, it is important to work out the correct order of these sequence fragments (known as 'contigs') in the genome. Once this is done, it becomes much easier to analyse the genome sequence, fill in any missing pieces of sequence, evaluate its content, and search for particular features. Working out the order of the sequence contigs requires a genome map. Such a map works rather like the index of a book: it tells one where certain key words (or certain fragments of the genetic sequence) lie within the book as a whole. There are many ways to make genome maps, but one of the most versatile and accurate approaches is known as HAPPY mapping. This proposal seeks to build a HAPPY map and, in conjunction with other projects going on around the world, to eventually produce an 'AphidBase' of data for the research community. Although the genome sequence currently underway will be from one particular aphid species it is anticipated that the information obtained will be very relevant to other aphids including many which are important pests of agricultural crops, causing both direct feeding damage and transmitting plant virus diseases. Thus it will provide important information on how aphids develop resistance to insecticides, how new pesticides could be designed and potential new control strategies that don't require chemical treatments.