Abstract
BackgroundFemale moths synthesize species-specific sex pheromone components and release them to attract male moths, which depend on precise sex pheromone chemosensory system to locate females. Two types of genes involved in the sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation pathways play essential roles in this important moth behavior. To understand the function of genes in the sex pheromone pathway, this study investigated the genome-wide and digital gene expression of sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation genes in various adult tissues in the diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, which is a notorious vegetable pest worldwide.ResultsA massive transcriptome data (at least 39.04 Gb) was generated by sequencing 6 adult tissues including male antennae, female antennae, heads, legs, abdomen and female pheromone glands from DBM by using Illumina 4000 next-generation sequencing and mapping to a published DBM genome. Bioinformatics analysis yielded a total of 89,332 unigenes among which 87 transcripts were putatively related to seven gene families in the sex pheromone biosynthesis pathway. Among these, seven [two desaturases (DES), three fatty acyl-CoA reductases (FAR) one acetyltransferase (ACT) and one alcohol dehydrogenase (AD)] were mainly expressed in the pheromone glands with likely function in the three essential sex pheromone biosynthesis steps: desaturation, reduction, and esterification. We also identified 210 odorant-degradation related genes (including sex pheromone-degradation related genes) from seven major enzyme groups. Among these genes, 100 genes are new identified and two aldehyde oxidases (AOXs), one aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), five carboxyl/cholinesterases (CCEs), five UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs), eight cytochrome P450 (CYP) and three glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) displayed more robust expression in the antennae, and thus are proposed to participate in the degradation of sex pheromone components and plant volatiles.ConclusionsTo date, this is the most comprehensive gene data set of sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation enzyme related genes in DBM created by genome- and transcriptome-wide identification, characterization and expression profiling. Our findings provide a basis to better understand the function of genes with tissue enriched expression. The results also provide information on the genes involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation, and may be useful to identify potential gene targets for pest control strategies by disrupting the insect-insect communication using pheromone-based behavioral antagonists.
Highlights
Female moths synthesize species-specific sex pheromone components and release them to attract male moths, which depend on precise sex pheromone chemosensory system to locate females
The results provide information on the genes involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation, and may be useful to identify potential gene targets for pest control strategies by disrupting the insect-insect communication using pheromone-based behavioral antagonists
We first mapped the transcriptome reads to the diamondback moth (DBM) reference genome (Genome assembly version 2, http://iae.fafu.edu.cn/DBM/) (Table 1) and obtained the following mapping rates that were favourable for annotation: 42.29%, 39.6%, 38.65%, 42.27%, 43.7% and 41.65%
Summary
Female moths synthesize species-specific sex pheromone components and release them to attract male moths, which depend on precise sex pheromone chemosensory system to locate females. Two types of genes involved in the sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation pathways play essential roles in this important moth behavior. Reproductive isolation relies heavily on mature female adults producing and releasing species-specific sex pheromone components to attract conspecific males. Adult male antennae on the other hand perceive these sex pheromone components from a distance resulting in the successful location of the female to initiate and complete mating behavior [1]. Type I sex pheromone components are fatty acid derivatives with 0–4 double bond containing carbon chains of varying lengths (C10-C18) and an oxygenated functional group that can be an aldehyde, alcohol or an acetate ester. Sex pheromone biosynthesis employs a modified fatty-acid biosynthesis pathway that includes various processes such as acetylation, desaturation, chain shortening, reduction, and oxidation, either separately or in combination [2, 4]
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