Abstract
The Asia tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is an important vector of arboviruses, and females can transmit pathogens such as the dengue, zika, and chikungunya viruses. Understanding sex-related differences in this mosquito is fundamental for vector control. However, there are no reports of systematic characterization of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in male and female Ae. albopictus. To investigate the roles of coding and non-coding RNAs in both sexes of Ae. albopictus, RNA sequencing was performed on male and female samples. The results showed 305 differentially expressed protein-coding genes (DEGs) between males and females, of which 198 were highly expressed in males and 125 were highly expressed in females. Sex-associated gene ontology terms were enriched. Analysis with the FEELnc software identified 2,623 novel lncRNAs, of which 26 showed male high expression and 11 showed female high expression. Quantitative real-time PCR of randomly selected DEGs and lncRNAs supported the validity of the RNA sequencing results. Knocking down male high-expressed gene AALF000433 in male adults reduced the egg hatching rate. This study provides valuable data on sex-specific expression of protein-coding genes and lncRNAs in adult Ae. albopictus, which will guide further studies aimed at understanding sex development and determination mechanisms in this species.
Highlights
Aedes albopictus, an important vector of arboviruses such as dengue (Paupy et al, 2010), zika (Liu et al, 2017), and chikungunya (Vega-Rúa et al, 2014), is an aggressive, invasive mosquito species with a worldwide distribution
The overall transcript profiles of the male and female libraries showed the highest similarity, indicating that genome-wide variance of the biological replicates was negligible, and remarkable differences were observed between the sexes (Figure S2)
The results showed co-high expression of two significant male high-expression long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and their target genes using relaxed criteria (P
Summary
An important vector of arboviruses such as dengue (Paupy et al, 2010), zika (Liu et al, 2017), and chikungunya (Vega-Rúa et al, 2014), is an aggressive, invasive mosquito species with a worldwide distribution. Vector control is a useful way to prevent epidemics of mosquito-borne infectious diseases. Gene drive systems have been proposed as a means of vector control, by either inhibiting the target population or spreading effector genes that make the population refractory to the relevant disease pathogens (Adelman and Tu, 2016). As only the adult female Ae. albopictus feeds on animal blood and transmits pathogens, a possible approach to reduce disease transmission is the release of only male Ae. albopictus. It is important to understand the sex determination mechanism(s) used by this species
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