Heliconius Butterfly Genome Assemblies and Annotations for 16 Species

Reference-guided genome assemblies and gene annotations for 16 species of Heliconius butterflies, created by Fernando Seixas of Harvard University. The dataset includes two scaffolded assembly versions per species aligned to H. melpomene or H. erato demophoon reference genomes, plus de novo mitogenome assemblies for all 16 species and an outgroup.

Use Cases

• Comparative genomics analysis based on synteny-guided assemblies across multiple species.
• Study of structural variation across the Heliconius genus based on the scaffolded genome assemblies.
• Phylogenetic or population genetics research based on the included de novo mitogenome assemblies.
• Gene annotation and functional analysis based on the provided annotation files.

Strengths

• Includes data for 16 distinct Heliconius butterfly species, enabling multi-species comparisons.
• Provides two reference-aligned assembly versions per species, offering methodological flexibility.
• Contains de novo mitogenome assemblies for all species plus an outgroup (Eueides tales).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count and file sizes are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Harvard University, associated with a manuscript (DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab069).

Collection Method

Reference-guided genome assembly and annotation, with scaffolds aligned to H. melpomene or H. erato demophoon reference genomes.