ERGA-BGE genome of the Spanish moon moth  Actias isabellae Graells, 1849: a nocturnal lepidopteran protected by the Habitats Directive

  1. Marta Vila
    ,  
  2. Neus Marí-Mena
    ,  
  3. Roger Vila
    ,  
  4. Ana Riesgo ,  
  5. Daniel García-Souto ,  
  6. Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde ,  
  7. Astrid Böhne ,  
  8. Rita Monteiro ,  
  9. Thomas Marcussen ,  
  10. Rebekah Oomen ,  
  11. Torsten H. Struck ,  
  12. Marta Gut ,  
  13. Laura Aguilera ,  
  14. Francisco Câmara Ferreira
    ,  
  15. Fernando Cruz ,  
  16. Jèssica Gómez-Garrido ,  
  17. Tyler S. Alioto ,  
  18. Leanne Haggerty ,  
  19. Fergal Martin
    ,  
  20. Chiara Bortoluzzi
Article Authors & roles Authors Peer review record Peer review Metrics
Cite

Section
Data Note
Published
September 16, 2025
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20658.2
Versions

  • Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)
    Grant ID(s): 22.00173, 24.00054
  • Generalitat de Catalunya
    Grant ID(s): 2021-SGR-00420
  • European Commission
    Grant ID(s): 101059492
  • Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades & Agencia Estatal de Investigación
    Grant ID(s): PID2022-139689NB-I00
  • University of A Coruña
  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • Xunta de Galicia
    Grant ID(s): ED431B2024/23

Views
122
Downloads
24
Citations

Graellsia isabellae, Actias isabellae, genome assembly, European Reference Genome Atlas, Biodiversity Genomics Europe, Earth Biogenome Project, Spanish moon moth, Saturniidae

Abstract

High-quality reference genomes are critical resources for understanding biodiversity and supporting conservation efforts. We present the chromosome-level assembly of the Spanish moon moth, Actias isabellae (Graells, 1849), a nocturnal lepidopteran protected under the EU Habitats Directive. The assembly spans 0.56 Gb across 31 pseudomolecules, including the Z chromosome, with a contig N50 of 18.9 Mb and a scaffold N50 of 20.4 Mb. The mitochondrial genome was also assembled into a 15,247 bp circular sequence. Annotation identified 11,805 protein-coding genes and 2,238 non-coding genes, with a BUSCO completeness of over 94%. Notably, no W chromosome was detected, suggesting a ZZ/Z0 sex determination system. This reference genome provides an essential foundation for studying sex chromosome evolution in Lepidoptera and enables advanced population genomics monitoring of this protected species. More broadly, it contributes to ongoing efforts within the European Reference Genome Atlas and the Earth BioGenome Project to harness genomics for biodiversity conservation.

Corresponding author
Chiara Bortoluzzi
0000-0001-6589-6635
chiara.bortoluzzi@sib.swiss
Grant information

This project received funding from Biodiversity Genomics Europe (Grant no. 101059492), which is funded by Horizon Europe under the Biodiversity, Circular Economy and Environment call (REA.B.3); co-funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) under contract numbers 22.00173 and 24.00054; and by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme. MV was financially supported by grants from Xunta de Galicia (ED431B 2024/23) and the University of A Coruña. RV is supported by grant PID2022-139689NB-I00 (MICIU/ AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and ERDF, EU) and by grant 2021-SGR-00420 (Departament de Recerca i Universitats, Generalitat de Catalunya).

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright
© 2025 Marta Vila (Co-Author); Neus Marí-Mena (Co-Author); Roger Vila (Co-Author); Ana Riesgo (Co-Author); Daniel García-Souto (Co-Author); Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde (Co-Author); Astrid Böhne (Co-Author); Rita Monteiro (Co-Author); Thomas Marcussen (Co-Author); Rebekah Oomen (Co-Author); Torsten H. Struck (Co-Author); Marta Gut (Co-Author); Laura Aguilera (Co-Author); Francisco Câmara Ferreira (Co-Author); Fernando Cruz (Co-Author); Jèssica Gómez-Garrido (Co-Author); Tyler S. Alioto (Co-Author); Leanne Haggerty (Co-Author); Fergal Martin (Co-Author); Chiara Bortoluzzi (Corresponding Author, Co-Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First version published
June 30, 2025 (https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20658.1)
Latest version published
September 16, 2025 (https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20658.2)
Revised

Amendment

In the new revised manuscript, we addressed the reviewers comments by modifying the abstract and the list of keywords. We have also reworded the introduction to better explain the role that recent phylogenomic analyses have played in the change in genus associated with Actias isabellae. We have also clarified the approach used to estimate the genome size based on ancestral taxa, as we realised our statement was misleading. Finally, we clarified the use of BioSample SAMEA114400479 for sequencing and assembly.

Comments

Publication information

Section
Data Note
Published
September 16, 2025
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.20658.2
Versions

Included in

Funding data

  • Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI)
    Grant ID(s): 22.00173, 24.00054
  • Generalitat de Catalunya
    Grant ID(s): 2021-SGR-00420
  • European Commission
    Grant ID(s): 101059492
  • Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades & Agencia Estatal de Investigación
    Grant ID(s): PID2022-139689NB-I00
  • University of A Coruña
  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
  • Xunta de Galicia
    Grant ID(s): ED431B2024/23

Metrics

Views
122
Downloads
24
Citations

Keywords

Graellsia isabellae, Actias isabellae, genome assembly, European Reference Genome Atlas, Biodiversity Genomics Europe, Earth Biogenome Project, Spanish moon moth, Saturniidae

Comments

Marta Vila

Universidade da Coruña, Grupo de Investigación en Bioloxía Evolutiva, Departamento de Bioloxía, Facultade de Ciencias, Zapateira, A Coruña, 15071, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Neus Marí-Mena

Universidade da Coruña, Grupo de Investigación en Bioloxía Evolutiva, Departamento de Bioloxía, Facultade de Ciencias, Zapateira, A Coruña, 15071, Spain

All Genetics & Biology SL, Rúa Cubelos 21, Oleiros, A Coruña, 15172, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing

Roger Vila

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37, Barcelona, 08003, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing

Ana Riesgo

Department of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology, c/Jose Gutierrez Abascal 2, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, 28006, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-7993-1523
anariesgogil@gmail.com

Daniel García-Souto

Departamento de Bioquímica, Xenética e Inmunoloxía, Centro de Investigación Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, 36310, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-0997-8799
danielgarciasouto@gmail.com

Carlos Lopez-Vaamonde

Zoologie Forestière, INRAE, UR633, Orléans, F-45075, France

Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insect, UMR7261 CNRS-Université de Tours, Tours, France

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-2278-2368
carlos.lopezvaamonde@inra.fr

Astrid Böhne

Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Museum Koenig Bonn, Adenauerallee 127, Bonn, 53113, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1284-3115
A.Boehne@leibniz-lib.de

Rita Monteiro

Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, Museum Koenig Bonn, Adenauerallee 127, Bonn, 53113, Germany

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-1374-4474
R.Monteiro@leibniz-lib.de

Thomas Marcussen

Natural History Museum Zoology, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, London, England, 0318, UK

Centre for Ecological & Evolutionary Synthesis, Blindernveien 31, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0371, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-1960-9508
thomarc@ibv.uio.no

Rebekah Oomen

Natural History Museum Zoology, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, London, England, 0318, UK

Centre for Ecological & Evolutionary Synthesis, Blindernveien 31, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0371, Norway

Department of Biological Sciences, 100 Tucker Park Road, University of New Brunswick Saint John, Saint John, E2K5E2, Canada

Tjärnö Marine Laboratory, Hättebäcksvägen 7, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 45296, Sweden

Centre for Coastal Research, Universitetsveien 25, University of Agder, Kristiansand, 4630, Norway

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-2094-5592
rebekahoomen@gmail.com

Torsten H. Struck

Natural History Museum Zoology, P.O. Box 1172, Blindern, University of Oslo, London, England, 0318, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Methodology, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-3280-6239
t.h.struck@nhm.uio.no

Marta Gut

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-4063-7159
marta.gut@cnag.eu

Laura Aguilera

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-8631-8778
laura.aguilera@cnag.eu

Francisco Câmara Ferreira

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Fernando Cruz

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0003-4098-8829
fernando.cruz@cnag.eu

Jèssica Gómez-Garrido

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-6409-8009
jessica.gomez@cnag.eu

Tyler S. Alioto

Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), Baldiri Reixac 4, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 08028, Spain

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-2960-5420
tyler.alioto@cnag.eu

Leanne Haggerty

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0001-8843-3596
leanne@ebi.ac.uk

Fergal Martin

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Writing – Review & Editing

Chiara Bortoluzzi

Department of Biology, Via Madonna del Piano 6, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, 50019, Italy

Department of Aquatic Ecology, Überlandstrasse 133, Eawag, Dübendorf, Zurich, 8600, Switzerland

SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Amphipôle, Quartier UNIL-Sorge, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation
0000-0001-6589-6635
chiara.bortoluzzi@sib.swiss

Downloads over the last 12 months:

Cited by

via Crossref

View citing articles