A chromosomal-level genome assembly of Thanatophilus sinuatus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae)

Abstract

Thanatophilus sinuatus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), a widespread necrophagous beetle frequently recovered from remains, is critical for post-mortem interval estimation. The absence of a reference genome has limited molecular studies of its forensic traits. Here, we report the first high-quality, chromosome-level genome assembly of T. sinuatus, built using PacBio HiFi, Illumina, and Hi-C data. The 288.95 Mb genome has a scaffold N50 of 18.97 Mb, with 98.37% of sequence (284.24 Mb) anchored to 16 chromosomes. BUSCO analysis (Insecta, n = 1,367) reveals 98.6% completeness with 97.3% single-copy BUSCOs and 1.3% duplicated BUSCOs. Repetitive elements comprise 34.32% of the assembly, and 12,300 protein-coding genes were predicted. This high-quality genome provides a valuable genomic resource for elucidating Silphinae comparative genomics, the genetic mechanisms underlying traits of forensic interest.