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Darwin Research Fellow Dr Charlotte Wright is celebrating a major milestone in efforts to sequence the genome of all known European species of butterfly and moth, with high-quality sequences for 1,000 species now having been achieved.
Based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Charlotte joined the College as a Charles and Katharine Darwin Research Fellow this term. She is the first author on a paper published last week in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, presenting the work of Project Psyche, an international initiative that aims to sequence all 11,665 species of butterflies and moths in Europe.
“Working with members across the world to build Project Psyche and harness genomics is incredibly important,” explains Charlotte.
“Due to the diversity of butterflies and moths, we work closely with local experts and taxonomists, as many species look identical until they are under a microscope. In some cases, we only know the species because of what plant it was feeding on as a caterpillar.”
As key pollinators and a vital part of the food chain, butterflies and moths, or Lepidoptera, play an integral part of ecosystems across the world. Rapidly affected by changes to their environment or habitat, a decline in their numbers can be a crucial early indicator of biodiversity loss.
The 1,000 species sequenced so far includes almost all butterflies found in the UK.
“Taxonomic expertise is fading,” Charlotte says.
“We hope that one of the lasting impacts of Project Psyche will be close engagement between taxonomists and genomics researchers to gain a deeper understanding of natural history. By working together, we will also build a genetically informed evolutionary tree that describes how all butterflies and moths in Europe are related to each other. This is the foundation to answering questions about the past and help to be more prepared for the future.”
