Comparative linkage mapping to investigate synteny and recombination in social Vespidae.

Genetic linkage maps are valuable resources for investigating chromosomal structure, quantifying karyotype, estimating recombination rates, and improving preexisting genome assemblies. Comparative linkage mapping, in turn, broadens our understanding of the phylogenetic history of these genomic features. Through an assessment of synteny (the conservation of gene order on homologous chromosomes in different species) and variation in recombination rate, we can begin to understand how genomic features change during the evolution of distinct species. Here, we construct high-density genetic linkage maps for 3 Vespidae wasp species from the Vespula genus: Vespula consobrina, Vespula pensylvanica, and Vespula vidua to investigate shared genomic architecture between these 3 yellowjacket wasp species. We show that these species exhibit high levels of collinearity, often in chromosome-length blocks of synteny, with some evidence for small interchromosomal rearrangements. We also identify 2 "inversions" in all 3 species that are likely artifacts from the genome assembly process. In addition, we map genome-wide recombination rates and reveal the recombination landscape to be highly variable on intrachromosomal, interchromosomal, and interspecific scales. Genome-wide recombination rates are high for all three Vespula species, (V. pensylvanica: 22.7 cM/Mb, V. consobrina: 24.3 cM/Mb, and V. vidua: 24.7 cM/Mb), which is consistent with findings of high recombination rates for other eusocial species. Our high-quality linkage maps will be resources for ongoing evolutionary genetics studies interested in the genome evolution of social wasps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]