Measuring genome size across different species can yield important insights into evolution of the genome and allow for more informed decisions when designing next-generation genomic sequencing projects. New techniques for estimating genome size using shallow genomic sequence data have emerged which have the potential to augment our knowledge of genome sizes, yet these methods have only been used in a limited number of empirical studies. In this project, we compare estimation methods using next-generation sequencing (k-mer methods and average read depth of single-copy genes) to measurements from flow cytometry, a standard method for genome size measures, using ground beetles (Carabidae) and other members of the beetle suborder Adephaga as our test system. We also present a new protocol for using read-depth of single-copy genes to estimate genome size. Additionally, we report flow cytometry measurements for five previously unmeasured carabid species, as well as 21 new draft genomes and six new draft transcriptomes across eight species of adephagan beetles. No single sequence-based method performed well on all species, and all tended to underestimate the genome sizes, although only slightly in most samples. For one species, Bembidion sp. nr. transversale, most sequence-based methods yielded estimates half the size suggested by flow cytometry.

在设计下一代基因组测序项目时，测量不同物种的基因组大小可以提供重要的洞察力，有助于深入了解基因组的进化，并做出更明智的决定。已经出现了使用浅层基因组序列数据估算基因组大小的新技术，这些新技术可能会增强我们对基因组大小的了解，但是这些方法仅在有限的实证研究中使用。在此项目中，我们将使用下一代测序的估计方法（k-mer方法和单拷贝基因的平均读取深度）与流式细胞仪的测量进行比较，流式细胞仪是一种标准的基因组大小测量方法，使用甲虫（甲壳纲）和其他甲虫亚纲Adephaga的成员作为我们的测试系统。我们还提出了一种使用单拷贝基因的读取深度来估计基因组大小的新协议。此外，我们报告了五个未曾测量过的Carabid物种以及二十个新杂种甲虫的21个新的基因组草图和六个新的转录组的流式细胞仪测量结果。没有一种基于序列的方法在所有物种上都表现良好，并且都倾向于低估了基因组的大小，尽管在大多数样本中仅占很小的比例。对于一个物种，Bembidion sp。nr。贩卖，大多数基于序列的方法产生的估计大小是流式细胞仪建议的一半。