Publication Type
Journal Article
Journal Name
BMC Genomics
Publication Date
12-1-2025
Abstract
Background: Hippobosca camelina (camel ked) is an obligate hematophagous ectoparasite that infests camels. Hematophagy inflicts painful bites leading to myiasis, anemia and pathogen transmission such as Candidatus Anaplasma camelii. A genome assembly for this biting flies is currently unavailable, limiting understanding of its genetics, including the chemosensory system.
Results: The assembly size for Hippobosca camelina female is 135.6 Mb with 17.08% repeated regions, an N50 of 1.2 Mb, a total of 2,182 contigs, a GC content of 33.5% and compleasm (Busco) completeness of 95.38% with the diptera_odb10 lineage (S:95.83%, 3148, D:0.30%, 10, F:0.30%, 10, I:0.00%, 0, M:3.56%, 117, N:3285) and Hippobosca camelina male had an assembly size of 133.5 Mb with 15.38% being repeats, an N50 of 419.6 Kb, 2,318 contigs, GC content of 33.5%, and compleasm (Busco) completeness of 94.70% with diptera_odb10 lineage (S:94.70%, 3111, D:0.49%, 16, F:0.85%, 28, I:0.00%, 0, M:3.96%, 130, N:3285). A total of 14,240 putative genes for H. camelina male and 13,496 putative genes for H. camelina female annotated were identified as orthologous to genes in selected dipterans that included Drosophila melanogaster, Glossina morsitans morsitans, Glossina fuscipes, Glossina brevipalpis and Anopheles gambiae. Chemosensory genes recovered included 4 Chemosensory specific proteins (CSPs), 18 Ionotropic receptors (IRs), 7 Gustatory receptors (GRs), 5 Odorant receptors (ORs), 9 Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and 1 Sensory Neuron Membrane Protein (SNMP).
Conclusion: This study generated two genome assemblies for Hippobosca camelina. Both are smaller in size compared to Melophagus ovinus (Zhang et al., BMC Genomics 24, 2023) and Glossina morsitans (Watanabe et al., Science 344:380–6, 2014). The Hippobosca assemblies have a lower repeat content compared to G. morsitans and M. ovinus, a phenomenon that may explain the reduced assembly size. A total of 44 chemosensory genes for H. camelina were annotated. The obligate parasitic lifestyle, limited movement, and narrow host specificity in Hippobosca camelina could be related to the reduced chemosensory system genes in the six known families of chemosensory genes as reported in this study.
Keywords
Chemosensory genes, Comparative genomics, Genomic analysis, Hematophagy, Hippobosca
Recommended Citation
Kebaso, F., Diallo, S., Kibet, C., Hashim, S., Makwatta, J., Getahun, M., Getange, D., Entfellner, J., & Masiga, D. (2025). De novo genome assembly, annotation, and characterization of chemosensory genes in the camel ked (Hippobosca camelina). BMC Genomics, 26 (1) https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-025-11833-1