Why bacterial carriage matters for antimicrobial resistance (original) (raw)

Five questions on butterfly and moth genomics with Charlotte Wright

Image credit: Mónica Doblas-Bajo.

Five questions on butterfly and moth genomics with Charlotte Wright

By Carmen Denman Hume, Communications Officer at the Wellcome Sanger Institute

Drawn to genomics like a moth to a flame, Wellcome Sanger Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Charlotte Wright, shares with us how she uses genomics to shed light on the evolutionary history of butterflies and moths, and how they might change in the future.

One in ten known species on Earth is either a butterfly or a moth. There are over 160,000 described species in the group Lepidoptera – which comprises the butterflies and moths. It is a megadiverse, charismatic and increasingly threatened group of species, which have inspired science and myth for thousands of years. However, only with genetic information are we beginning to understand the remarkable features of their genomes that have accompanied their unparalleled diversification.

Who is creating and using resources in this genomics space? Charlotte Wright at the Sanger Institute co-leads Project Psyche – a pan-European collaboration to sequence all 11,000 species of Lepidoptera in Europe. The aim is for researchers, like Charlotte, to use these genomes to accelerate science, inform conservation and support sustainable agricultural practices. In this blog, we caught up with Charlotte who shared some insights into Project Psyche and the future of Lepidoptera research in the genomics era.

Why study moths and butterflies?

Butterflies and moths are pollinators and therefore fundamental to the food chain. They are food for many birds and mammals and help plants - both wild and cultivated - thrive. Their presence signals a healthy ecosystem, while declines can warn us early about environmental problems like climate change or habitat loss.

Genomics helps identify at-risk species, track genetic diversity, and inform strategies that keep butterflies, moths and their ecosystems safe. These discoveries are crucial at a time when insect populations are rapidly declining, making every butterfly and moth matter more than ever.

Whether you think of them as pests or pollinators, moths and butterflies have fascinating biology. Their wing colour, food-plant preference, adaptation and other characteristics are all coded for in their genomes. Studying moths and butterflies isn’t just about learning how their biology works – but how that biology is impacting them and the world that we are all a part of. Butterflies and moths have been recognised by the UK Government as biodiversity indicators; they are sensitive to changes in the ecosystems in which they live. This makes them a good indicator species to what is happening in the natural world.

“Moths and butterflies have fascinating biology. Their wing colour, food-plant preference, adaptation and other characteristics are all coded for in their genomes.”

Personally, my fascination with evolutionary biology began during my undergraduate degree, but the focus on butterflies and moths came later. I first worked on butterflies during my master’s degree with Professor Chris Jiggins at the Cambridge Department of Zoology, where I was using new sequencing methods to investigate wing colour patterning in Heliconius butterflies. This is a subject that has fascinated biologists since the concept of Müllerian mimicry was first proposed by Fritz Müller in 1878.

Determining butterfly wing patterning. Image credit: Carmen Denman Hume / Wellcome Sanger Institute.

He noticed that different butterflies share the same colourful wing patterns to warn predators of their toxicity. Over a century on, these wing patterns are still a source of fascination and inspiration for evolutionary biologists. While my initial research was focused on understanding this specific aspect of butterfly biology, I am now interested in how the genetic material of butterflies and moths evolves more broadly. By understanding processes such as how genomes evolve in butterflies and moths, we can learn about the general processes that shape biodiversity across the tree of life. I now use large-scale sequencing datasets and novel bioinformatic approaches to understand how the diversity of butterflies and moths evolved.

What makes Lepidoptera unusual?

Lepidoptera are full of contradictions and unusual genomic features that challenge our understanding of fundamental processes. For example, a huge number of species organise their genetic material into 31 chromosomes raising the question of why evolution has favoured this stability. Yet, a small number of species display a huge range in the number of chromosomes – as many as 229 in the Atlas Blue butterfly - that they possess, a greater range than in any other group. How do we explain this paradox?

During my PhD research, I showed that there are many cases where there has been a switch in the pace of genome evolution. For example, where butterflies and moths rapidly reorganise their chromosomes, resulting in a wide range in the number, size and nature of the chromosomes that they possess.

Often, the groups with large numbers of chromosomes are relatively young in evolutionary terms and contain many species, raising questions about how rapid changes in genome structure influence the diversification and extinction of species. To explore this, I use genomes from across the breadth of Lepidoptera – a group that has continuously evolved for over 230 million years.

I am particularly interested in the blue butterflies – Lycaenidae – because they include many groups that have independently moved from a stable genome to a rapidly changing genome configuration. This provides the perfect system for understanding whether there are common features that explain why some groups do this, and to understand the consequences for how new species evolve.

The Atlas Blue butterfly, photographed by Roger Vila.

The Atlas Blue butterfly. Image credit: Roger Vila / The Institute of Evolutionary Biology.

Understanding the taxonomy of some of the blue butterflies has been notoriously difficult – many look very similar and are very closely related. Collaborating with experts to collect and identify species has been crucial. Genomes provide an important source of information to help to work out these relationships.

Local knowledge and taxonomic expertise are becoming scarce. But local knowledge and observations are essential for informing scientific research. Building networks and partnerships between genomics researchers and taxonomists, and training the next generation are vital.

Taxonomy is the science of naming, defining, and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. This science creates a hierarchical structure to organise life. Paired with genomics, this classification allows researchers to build up a realistic tree of life, and to study how species evolve, including how they adapt. It is this partnership that is essential to my research and many others.

In Project Psyche – a landmark effort to genome sequence all 11,000 butterfly and moths found in Europe – we rely heavily on taxonomists and entomologists with local knowledge to identify difficult species. There are many species which look identical until they are analysed under a microscope, or in some cases we only know the species because of what plant it was feeding on as a caterpillar.

What is Project Psyche?

Named after the butterfly-winged Greek goddess of the soul, Project Psyche involves a wide network of researchers, local experts and stakeholders in industry and conservation across Europe and beyond.

We are a group of over 200 people with diverse expertise and interests that share a deep understanding of the importance of genomics for fostering progress in science and society. This vision is being realised with the project already having celebrated completing 1,000 Lepidoptera genomes so far. Each of these genomes has been made available for the global community to use.

Night time sample collection in Mals, Italy. Image credit: Charlotte Wright.

Moths caught during sample collection in Mals, Italy. Image credit: Charlotte Wright.

Identifying and preparing moth and butterfly samples for transport to the Sanger Institute for DNA sequencing. Image credit: Joana Meier.

Identifying moth species caught in Italy. Image credit: Milica Zlatkovic.

Collecting butterfly and moth samples by day in Italy. Image credit: Irena Slamova.

Studying moth samples caught at night in Italy. Image credit: Joanna Meier.

Night time moth collection in Italy. Image credit: Joana Meier.

Studying moth and butterfly samples in Italy. Image credit: Lars Littmann.

Butterfly and moth sample preparation for future DNA sequencing. Image credit: Lars Littmann.

Moths attracted to a white sheet at night in Italy. Image credit: Charlotte Wright.

Preparing a sample on dry ice in Italy. Image credit: Lars Littmann.

Project Psyche scientists sorting and preparing moth and butter samples in Italy. Image credit: Charlotte Wright.

A larva of Actebia praecox (Noctuidae) collected on a sandy beach while doing field work in Pyhäjoki, western coast of Finland. Image credit: Marko Mutanen

Photographing and cataloging every butterfly and moth collected. Image credit: Joana Meier.

Night time moth collecting in Italy. Image credit: Alena Suchackova.

Project Psyche scientists collecting and identifying moths and butterflies in Finland and Italy for DNA sequencing to generate reference genomes. Image credits: Various, please click on the individual photos for more information.

Project Psyche goes beyond producing genomes. A key aim is to increase equity in biodiversity genomics. As part of this, we organise courses and research exchanges for early-career researchers to develop new skills. One of these skills is the art of genome curation – the crucial last step in the process of producing a high-quality genome. Each piece of the genome is carefully inspected and changes are made so that the final genome meets the high standards needed.

This process involves looking at a digital map of the genome and moving pieces around – like a jigsaw puzzle – except with the added bonus that new discoveries can be made while doing this, like finding interesting new sex chromosomes or large differences between the two copies of the genome.

Moments from the genome curation course run by Project Psyche at the Sanger Institute. Image credit: Carmen Denman Hume / Wellcome Sanger Institute.

We organise training courses to equip Project Psyche members with this skill, and I am delighted when many continue to curate genomes as part of Project Psyche after the course finishes. I have found it incredibly rewarding to support these events, which promote knowledge exchange and connections between researchers from across Europe. A lot of this has been possible because of a COST action – standing for European Cooperation in Science and Technology - a grant which I helped to write with many members of the Project Psyche community and was led by Professor Niklas Wahlberg at Lund University in Sweden.

Potential of Project Psyche genomes to address evolutionary questions and impact society. Image credit: Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2025; 40: 1234-1250. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2025.10.007

In the first phase of Project Psyche, we have set-up seven sampling hubs spread across Europe. In addition to leading collections, many of these sampling hubs also work with local collectors. Collecting 11,000 species is a huge task – especially when many are only found at specific times of the year, or in localised areas.

A painstaking task of rearing the adult from a caterpillar is also being done by many people who are generous with their time and highly experienced at this dark art. Samples are prepared and fresh frozen, before being shipped to a sequencing hub, like the Sanger Institute, and onboarded for sequencing. Currently, the sequencing is done at the Sanger Institute and funded by Wellcome.

We aim to support more sequencing efforts across Europe as the project develops. The Project Psyche community also includes many researchers who are already using the genomes to understand the evolutionary relationships between species, track when key genes that underpin traits arose, and as a basis for studying the population dynamics of indicator species of ecosystem health.

We are currently at a thrilling stage where we are beginning to work together as a community to jointly analyse the first 1,000 genomes – an exceptional amount of data.

Celebrating generating 1,000 high-quality reference moth and butterfly genomes as part of Project Psyche. Image credit: Mark Thomson / Wellcome Sanger Institute.

What are some key research findings that have utilised butterfly and moth genomes?

A research paper from my doctoral research described the discovery of the animal with the most chromosomes – the Atlas Blue butterfly. This enigmatic butterfly was known to have many chromosomes from an earlier study that painstakingly counted its chromosomes under a microscope. However, our genome allowed us to discover that the hundreds of chromosomes we see in the Atlas Blue, evolved by shattering the 31 chromosomes that are typically seen in butterflies. By sequencing its genome as well as its close relatives, I was also able to look for clues as to what caused this massive change in genome structure. Like many species, the Atlas Blue butterfly is facing habitat loss and changes in its environment. In addition to understanding fundamental processes in genome biology, this genome lays the foundation for genetics to inform conservation.

The tale of the creature with the most chromosomes

How Sanger scientists helped to confirm that the Atlas blue butterfly has the highest number of chromosomes out of all multicellular animals in the world.

What direction is this research heading?

Project Psyche just published our first paper as a collaborative group that outlines a vision for the areas of science where great progress will be made by leveraging thousands of genomes.

The Project Psyche community are collaboratively analysing the first 1,000 of these genomes. I am particularly excited about studying the many examples of rapid genome reorganisation across Lepidoptera to uncover whether there are repeated genetic changes that underlie rapid reorganisation. This is an unprecedented amount of data and will come with challenges in how to devise methods to best analyse these data. However, it will also allow questions that can only be answered with many genomes from across the breadth of this extraordinarily ecologically diverse and species-rich group.

Will species like butterflies and moths be able to survive on a warming Earth? I think that we can help to answer this question, and others like it, using genomics.

Investigating evolution with 1,000 butterfly and moth genomes

Find out how unravelling the secrets hidden in the DNA of butterflies and moths could help aid nature conservation, transform our understanding of evolution, and uncover new ways of addressing agricultural pests.

Find out more

2025-12-11T17:02:55+00:0011 December 2025|

Latest blogs

Drawn to genomics like a moth to a flame, Wellcome Sanger Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Charlotte Wright, shares with us how she uses genomics to shed light on the evolutionary history of butterflies and moths, and how they might change in the future.
The use of embryonic and foetal material in research is an emotive topic. We break this topic down by taking a closer look at the promise of this work, the regulatory requirements necessary to conduct it, and how the Wellcome Sanger Institute is upholding these standards.
The CARRIAGE study reveals critical insights into the role of Staphylococcus aureus in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We caught up with Dr Ewan Harrison to discuss how the CARRIAGE study impacts our understanding of how to tackle AMR.
Drawn to genomics like a moth to a flame, Wellcome Sanger Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Charlotte Wright, shares with us how she uses genomics to shed light on the evolutionary history of butterflies and moths, and how they might change in the future.
The use of embryonic and foetal material in research is an emotive topic. We break this topic down by taking a closer look at the promise of this work, the regulatory requirements necessary to conduct it, and how the Wellcome Sanger Institute is upholding these standards.
The CARRIAGE study reveals critical insights into the role of Staphylococcus aureus in antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We caught up with Dr Ewan Harrison to discuss how the CARRIAGE study impacts our understanding of how to tackle AMR.

Wellcome Genome Campus,
Hinxton, Cambridgeshire,
CB10 1SA. UK
+44 (0)1223 834244

Wellcome Genome Campus,
Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA. UK
+44 (0)1223 834244

Wellcome Sanger Institute, Genome Research Limited (reg no. 2742969) is a charity registered in England with number 1021457