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← All articlesEditorial brief · abstract-levelScore 58/100Confidence medium
biorxiv2026-08-14mtDNAevolutionsymbiosis

Pineus strobi adds a 25.3 kb mitogenome and shows adelgid chromosomes barely shuffled for 90 million years

The first Pineus chromosome-scale genome (pine bark adelgid) keeps major linkage groups with Adelges across ~90 million years. Grape phylloxera’s five chromosomes still correspond, with limited fusions/fissions. Aphid-style interautosomal chaos is not an Aphidomorpha-wide rule. The authors also recover a complete 25.3 kb mitochondrial genome with expanded repeat-rich noncoding DNA, circular genomes of the nutritional symbionts Annandia and Hartigia pinicola (syntenic with Pineus similis), and the first complete adelgid Wolbachia. mtDNA is one of several completed circles.

Mito.news · at a glance

Signal profile (abstract-level)

mtDNA · evolution · symbiosis

Score 58/100BIORXIVmedium confidencemtDNA
58
Importance
50
Mito signal
25
Dysfunction
75
Evidence
15
Translational

Editorial signal profile from the abstract (importance score, mito keywords, dysfunction tags, evidence density, translational cues). Not a figure reproduced from the preprint PDF.

Finding. Pine bark adelgid chromosomes look like Adelges chromosomes after 90 million years, and they still match grape phylloxera after a few fusions. Aphid-style chromosome scrambling is not the family rule. In the same package: a complete 25.3 kb mitochondrial genome stuffed with repeat-rich noncoding DNA, finished circles for the two nutritional symbionts, and the first complete adelgid Wolbachia. Mitochondria are a completed organelle genome, not a phenotype.

Why this paper matters

Adelgid genomics was Adelges-only. Pineus is the early branch. Conserved macrosynteny rewrites a comparative-chromosome story. The mitogenome and symbiont circles are why a mitochondrial desk files it.

What they actually measured

Chromosome assembly, synteny, 25.3 kb mtDNA, symbiont synteny versus P. similis, Wolbachia.

How to read the score

High fifties. Score 58.

What to do with it

If you assemble adelgid or aphidomorph genomes, take the mitogenome and the synteny claim. Skip if you wanted OXPHOS. The directional implication is that adelgid chromosomes are conservative, and pine-associated dual nutritional symbiosis plus a large mitogenome are now fully sequenced in Pineus.

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Source preprint

The chromosome-scale genome of the pine bark adelgid reveals conserved macrosynteny across Adelgidae

10.64898/2026.08.10.743978

Dial DT, Camp KN, Brunet BM, von Dohlen CD, Burke GR, Havill NP.

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