Abstract
The polysaccharide chitin is critical for the formation of many insect structures, including the exoskeleton, and is required for normal development. Here we report the annotation of three genes from the chitin synthesis pathway in the Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Liviidae), the vector of Huanglongbing (citrus greening disease). Most insects have two chitin synthase (CHS) genes but, like other hemipterans, D. citri has only one. In contrast, D. citri is unusual among insects in having two UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) genes. One of the D. citri UAP genes is broadly expressed, while the other is expressed predominantly in males. Our work helps pave the way for potential utilization of these genes as pest control targets to reduce the spread of Huanglongbing.
Highlights
The biosynthetic pathway for chitin begins with the hexosamine pathway, in which simple sugars, such as glucose, trehalose and glycogen, are converted into UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc)
The final step in the hexosamine pathway is catalyzed by the enzyme UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) [1]
The D. citri v3 genome is a chromosome-level assembly with a 40.5-megabase pair (Mb) scaffold N50 value, and 88.3% complete Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) [2]
Summary
We identified and manually annotated one CHS gene and two UAP genes in the D. citri genome v3. Available RNA-seq data indicate that one of the D. citri UAP genes is broadly expressed, while the other is expressed predominantly in males. D. citri genes in genome v3 [2] were identified by BLAST (NCBI BLAST, RRID:SCR_004870) analysis of D. citri sequences with insect CHS and UAP orthologs.
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