Ixodes scapularis (Ixodes scapularis)

Ixodes scapularis, Black-legged tick, is a hard-bodied tick from the Ixodidae family. Ix. scapularis is the primary vector for Lyme disease transmitting the pathogenic bacterium Borrelia burgdorfei.

Assembly

The Ixodes scapularis Wikel strain genome sequence is a joint effort between the Broad Institute and the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI). Assembly of the estimated 4x shotgun coverage was performed at the JCVI. The assembly presented here (IscaW1, 2008) consists of 369,492 supercontigs, totalling 1,76 Gigabases, with a supercontig N50 size of 72 Kb.

Annotation

The annotation of the Ixodes genome is a collaboration between VectorBase, JCVI with support from the Broad Institute. Each group generated a set of gene predictions which were merged into a single canonical set (IscaW1.1). The merging strategy will be described in the genome paper (in preparation).

Genome Statistics