Researchers announced they have for the first time ever assembled the first complete genome of bed bugs. The study in its entirety can be read here.
The study conducted by researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and Weill Cornell Medicine, was published today in Nature Communications.
The research could help in creating a pesticide that the human parasites are not yet resistant to. The data also provided an interesting mapping of specific lines of bed bugs, specifically those in New York city and how the subway lines play a role.
“Bedbugs are one of New York City’s most iconic living fossils, along with cockroaches, meaning that their outward appearance has hardly changed throughout their long lineage.”