1KITE - 1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution (https://www.1kite.org/)

Mission

Insects are one of the most species-rich groups of metazoan organisms. They play a pivotal role in most non-marine ecosystems and many insect species are of enormous economical and medical importance. Unravelling the evolution of insects is essential for understanding how life in terrestrial and limnic environments evolved. The 1KITE (1K Insect Transcriptome Evolution) project aims to study the transcriptomes (that is the entirety of expressed genes) of more than 1,000 insect species encompassing all recognized insect orders. For each species, so-called ESTs (Expressed Sequence Tags) will be produced using next generation sequencing techniques (NGS). Sequencing and sequence assembly have been completed for more than 1,200 species. The expected data will allow inferring robust phylogenetic backbone trees of insects. Furthermore, the project includes the development of new software for data quality assessment and analysis.

1KITE has brought together internationally recognized experts in molecular biology, morphology, palaeontology, embryology, bioinformatics, and scientific computing in a yet unparalleled way. Overall, scientists from eleven nations (Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, UK and the US) are tightly collaborating in the 1KITE project.

I participated in 1KITE project since 2013 when I was junior student and right after I joined BGI (https://www.bgi.com/global/). Supervised by Prof. Xin Zhou and Dr. Shanlin Liu, I played an important role in the project on the behalf of BGI:

● Sample management

● Sequence data management

● Sequencing and assembly

● Check and filter out (cross- or external-) contaminations

● Gene annotation

● Mitochondrial sequences assembly from transcriptome data

● Screen out potential virus, fungi and bacteria sequences

● Assistance in database development (https://1kite.cngb.org/)