The Arthropoda is the phylum that contains most of the described living animal species in the world, including insects, crustaceans (e.g. shrimps/crabs/lobsters), chelicerates (e.g. mites/ticks/scorpions/spiders), and myriapods (e.g. centipedes/millipedes). Due to historical and various practical reasons, most of our understanding on the biology of arthropods mainly come from the insects and some lineages in the crustaceans and chelicerates. In terms of arthropod genomics, the situation is even more skewed or biased towards the insects. Collaborating with worldwide researchers, our team is fortunate to study the non-insect arthropod genomics since the last decade or so. In this talk, I would summarise some key and unexpected findings that we have and can learn from these understudied hidden gems, and argue the situation is just the tip of the iceberg.
Insights from the understudied non-insect arthropod genomes