Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses of chemosensory genes in the citrus fruit fly Bactrocera (Tetradacus) minax

Jun-Feng Cheng,Shicheng Chen,Yu-Peng Chen,Wen-Hu Zhang,Xue Bai,Bo Jiang,Jun Liu,Lei Gao,Ting Yu,Yong-Yue Lu,Edward D Walker,Zhong-Jian Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-74803-5

Abstract

The citrus fruit fly Bactrocera (Tetradacus) minax is a major and devastating agricultural pest in Asian subtropical countries. Previous studies have shown that B. minax interacts with plant hosts via the efficient chemosensory system. However, the molecular components of the B. minax chemosensory system have not been well characterized. Herein, we identified a total of 25 putative odorant-binding receptors (OBPs), 4 single-copy chemosensory proteins (CSPs) and 53 candidate odorant receptors (ORs) using a newly generated whole-genome dataset for B. minax. This study significantly extended the chemosensation-related gene profiles (particularly, OBPs and ORs) in six other tephritid species. Comparative transcriptome analysis of adult B. minax and Bactrocera dorsalis showed that there were 14 highly expressed OBPs (FPKM > 100) in B. dorsalis and 7 highly expressed ones in B. minax. The expression level of CSP3 gene and CSP4 gene was higher in B. dorsalis than that in B. minax. Comparative genomic and transcriptomic analyses of chemosensory genes in the citrus fruit fly B. minax provided new insights for preventive control of this agriculture important pest and closely related species.

Highlights

The citrus fruit fly Bactrocera (Tetradacus) minax is a major and devastating agricultural pest in Asian subtropical countries
OBP84a had two orthologs in the tephritids, which formed a branch with DmelOBP84a (Fig. 1)
Identification and characterization of the insect chemosensory system will contribute to the development of novel biocontrol methods for targeting the specific agricultural pests such as B. minax

Summary

Introduction

The citrus fruit fly Bactrocera (Tetradacus) minax is a major and devastating agricultural pest in Asian subtropical countries. 37 of 52 OBP sequences in D. melanogaster showed high homology to those in the seven selected tephritid species (Table 1).

Results

Conclusion