Drosophila paulistorum is a great model for speciation, as it is a species complex in state nascendi. We have been investigating the role of the symbiont Wolbachia for speciation using transcriptomics. We have also acquired Nanopore PrometION data of six D. paulistorum lines (in addition to our previously generated Illumina data) that we have de novo assembled. We have also performed a first round of annotation with the aid of our transcriptome data as well as data from other available Drosophila genomes/proteomes.
To continue our studies of speciation and further questions related to the interaction between Wolbachia and D. paulistorum and other willistoni group species, we need additional genomes from recent field-collected flies. An additional 18 genomes of willistoni group species, including D. paulistorum, will be sequenced with ONT during the fall/winter.