Investigating correlation between beetle diversity and recurring patterns of genome repeat architecture

Repetitive elements encompass the most dynamic compartments of genomes and play important roles in genome size, content, organization, and patterns of speciation, but remain understudied in many insect clades. We develop computational pipelines to accelerate analysis of tens to hundreds of samples efficiently for both long- and short-read data sets. Using these pipelines, we analyze a large genomic data set of Coleoptera (beetle) species to test whether recurring patterns of repeat architecture across families correlate with family-level diversity of species. For example, we test whether tandem repeats (e.g., satellite DNA), which are known to be unusually abundant in some Coleoptera lineages, can predict species diversity across families. As high-quality genomic data become increasingly available across taxonomic groups, additional study of genomic repeat structures can offer new perspectives on evolution and speciation of lineages that account for much of the diversity of life.