The Baylor College of Medicine recently sequenced and annotated the Homalodisca vitripennis genome as part of the i5k pilot project.

The Glassy-winged sharpshooter, GWSS, (Homalodisca vitripennis) [Hemiptera: Cicadellidae], occurs naturally within the southern United States. Once restricted to the southeastern states, it was accidentally spread across the south into California. The GWSS is a voracious feeder, and can fly long distances, preferring to feed upon cultivated crops, ie. Grapevine, fruit trees, and in the nymphal stages many weeds and grasses.

The GWSS is a serious threat to the viticulture industry as the primary vector of the plant-infecting bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, Xf. The GWSS feeds on a diverse number of plants, during which the bacteria can infect many tree fruit, nut, vine, and woody ornamental crops.

Glassy-winged Sharpshooter adults are ½ inch (13mm) long being fairly large for the Sharpshooter leafhopper family of insects. Sharpshooters use an ovipositor to lay eggs inside of the underside of leaves. The Sharpshooter will lay its eggs on almost any plant including cactus. The egg masses are usually composed of 10-20 eggs, but can lay more or as few as 1. Most of the egg masses have a waxy coating of brocosomes around the eggs for protection. The nymphs (5 instars) do not have wings, but develop wing pads in the 5th instar and are generally smaller than the adults, ranging in size from .07 inches (2 mm) to nearly ½ inch (13mm) long. The nymphs have very distinct red eyes. The Sharpshooter can consume about 300 times its own weight in fluids from the xylem vessels of the plants upon which it feeds, thus producing copious amounts of excreta fluid.

This dataset presents the Homalodisca vitripennis genome v1.0. This assembly version is the pre-release version, prior to filtering and quality control by the National Center for Biotechnology Information's GenBank resource (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/assembly/GCA_000696855.1). Assembly method details will be available in a forthcoming publication.

If you wish to use this dataset, please follow the Baylor College of Medicine's conditions for data use: https://www.hgsc.bcm.edu/bcm-hgsc-conditions-use