Date of Award

Winter 10-27-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Biological Science (MBioSci)

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Arnab Sengupta and Bruce A Snyder

Second Advisor

Kristine White

Third Advisor

Indiren Pillay

Abstract

There are approximately 12,000 described species within the class Diplopoda. Only six species, falling within four of sixteen orders, have fully sequenced genomes. No whole genomes are available for incredibly diverse families like Xystodesmidae. Many interesting characteristics in this group are poorly defined at the genetic level, such as the production of a defensive hydrogen cyanide secretion and UV fluorescence in the order Polydesmida. Here, we present a genetic characterization of the polydesmid millipede Cherokia georgiana Bollman, 1889. We include tissue-specific sequencing metrics, alignment and assembly of mitochondrial DNA consensus sequence according to tissue type, and phylogenetic tree construction using data generated by Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). Analysis of our dataset was conducted using the software Geneious Prime and EPI2ME for sequence alignment and identification of target sequences from genomic DNA. Furthermore, we present our research strategy for de novo total messenger RNA sequencing and functional annotation of the C. georgiana transcriptome. Next-generation sequencing was conducted on polyA-enriched mature mRNAs using Illumina 150x2 paired-end sequencing. Transcripts were annotated using the database Diamond BLASTx to compare obtained sequences to existing NCBI transcriptomic data. Genes involved in the production of cyanide, such as mandelonitrile oxidase and hydroxynitrile lyase, are identified for this species. The data presented here enhances existing knowledge of millipede biology and provides a valuable reference for future research in myriapod evolution and ecology.

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