Low hybridization temperatures improve target capture success of invertebrate loci: a case study of leaf-footed bugs (Hemiptera: Coreoidea)

Abstract

Target capture is widely used in phylogenomic, ecological and functional genomic studies. Bait sets that allow capture from a diversity of species can be advantageous, but high-sequence divergence from baits can limit yields. Currently, only four experimental comparisons of a critical target capture parameter, hybridization temperature, have been published. These have been in vertebrates, where bait divergences are typically low, and none include invertebrates where bait-target divergences may be higher. Most invertebrate capture studies use a fixed, high hybridization temperature to maximize the proportion of on-target data, but many report low locus recovery. Using leaf-footed bugs (Hemiptera: Coreoidea), we investigate the effect of hybridization temperature on capture success of ultraconserved elements targeted by (i) baits developed from divergent hemipteran genomes and (ii) baits developed from less divergent coreoid transcriptomes. Lower temperatures generally resulted in more contigs and improved recovery of targets despite a lower proportion of on-target reads, lower read depth and more putative paralogues. Hybridization temperatures had less of an effect when using transcriptome-derived baits, which is probably due to lower bait-target divergences and greater bait tiling density. Thus, accommodating low hybridization temperatures during target capture can provide a cost-effective, widely applicable solution to improve invertebrate locus recovery.