Abstract
Monochamus alternatus Hope is the main vector in China of the Pine Wilt Disease caused by the pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. Although chemical control is traditionally used to prevent pine wilt disease, new strategies based in biological control are promising ways for the management of the disease. However, there is no deep sequence analysis of Monochamus alternatus Hope that describes the transcriptome and no information is available about gene function of this insect vector. We used next generation sequencing technology to sequence the whole fourth instar larva transcriptome of Monochamus alternatus Hope and successfully built a Monochamus alternatus Hope transcriptome database. In total, 105,612 unigenes were assigned for Gene Ontology (GO) terms, information for 16,730 classified unigenes was obtained in the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COGs) database, and 13,024 unigenes matched with 224 predicted pathways in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome (KEGG). In addition, genes related to putative insecticide resistance-related genes, RNAi, the Bt receptor, intestinal digestive enzymes, possible future insect control targets and immune-related molecules are described. This study provides valuable basic information that can be used as a gateway to develop new molecular tools for Monochamus alternatus Hope control strategies.
Highlights
Pine Wilt Disease is a devastating disease in pine trees caused by the infection of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and it is commonly known as the cancer of pine trees [1]
Insect immunity to pathogenic microorganisms has been kept at a low level; (2) It has high environmental security; microorganisms typically have strong specificity for their targets and they are harmless to vertebrates, which protects the natural predators of those hosts; (3) insects are an ideal medium for various types of pathogens; the proliferation of insect pathogens in vivo can be spread by diseases and pests or the insect’s body; (4) It’s easy to obtain strains that are strongly pathogenic using genetic engineering and transformation techniques [5, 6]
This result indicates that the length distribution of the transcripts and unigenes were represented in majority by short sequences with relatively little redundancy, which is similar to transcriptome analysis reported for other insect species using the same technology [10,11,12,13,14]
Summary
Pine Wilt Disease is a devastating disease in pine trees caused by the infection of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and it is commonly known as the cancer of pine trees [1]. Since the discovery of B. xylophilus in Japanese black pines in the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing City (Jiangsu Province in China) in 1982, Pine Wilt Disease has occurred in a total of 275 county-level administrative regions (excluding Hong Kong and Taiwan) of 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), causing immense damage to forest resources and having impact in China’s ecological environment [2]. In China, the principal vector for Pine Wilt Disease is the beetle Monochamus alternatus Hope (M. alternatus) larvae as carriers; after emergence, t larvae use pine trees as food and oviposition sources, they are considered the invasive stage of the insect. The principal strategies to control M. alternatus include: trap trees, biological control, silvicultural control and chemical prevention [3, 4]. Current biological control techniques for M. alternatus have progressed, including the spreading of effective natural enemies, creation of black lights and trap-trees. There is currently a lack of knowledge regarding Monochamus alternatus Hope transcripts, gene expression and gene function in this insect vector
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