On Sept. 5, 2014, researchers led by Professor Ilkka Hanski at the University of Helsinki announced they had sequenced the full genome of the Glanville fritillary. The study confirmed the hypothesis that the ancestral lepidopteran species had 31 chromosomes, as originally proposed by Esko Suomalainen, professor of genetics at the University of Helsinki in the 1960s.

The Glanville fritillary butterfly is a medium-sized butterfly species distributed from southern Finland and Scandinavia across Europe to North Africa and Asia. The Glanville fritillary metapopulation in the Åland Islands in Finland is a well-known model for studying the ecological, genetic and evolutionary consequences of landscape fragmentation.

The final genome assembly of 393 Mb comprises 1,453 superscaffolds and 4,846 other scaffolds. Superscaffolds (N50=331kb) have linkage map information, and they cover 72% of the genome. The sequencing was based on several outbred individuals using a hybrid sequencing strategy. Extensive validation shows that the assembly is of high quality (more information in Ahola et al. 2014, Supplementary Information).