Genome sequencing, assembly and annotation of a woodroach, Cryptocercus darwini, the ancestor of modern termites

Eusociality is the highest degree of social organization, marking one of the major evolutionary transitions of life on Earth. Believed to be the first eusocial animals to evolve, termites have long been a model used to explore the evolution of eusociality. Extensive studies have focused on the morphological, developmental, behavioral, and most recently, molecular basis underlying their social lifestyle. The advent of the Genomic Era allows us to track the evolution of sociality from a genomics perspective. In this study, we sequenced, assembled and annotated the draft genome of a wood-feeding cockroach, Cryptocercus darwini (pictured above). Cryptocercus, the ancestor of all modern termites, has a subsocial lifestyle. A genomic understanding of C. darwini not only fills the phylogenetic gap between 5,000 species of cockroaches and 3,000 species of termites, but also bridges the transition from solitary to eusocial lifestyles, allowing us to explore the origin and evolution of eusociality through the termite-woodroach lineage.