Abstract
Species-specific sex pheromones play key roles in moth sexual communication. Although the general pathway of Type-I sex pheromone biosynthesis is well established, only a handful of genes encoding enzymes involved in this pathway have been characterized. Streltzoviella insularis is a destructive wood-boring pest of many street trees in China, and the female sex pheromone of this species comprises a blend of (Z)-3-tetradecenyl acetate, (E)-3-tetradecenyl acetate, and (Z)-5-dodecenyl acetate. This organism therefore provides an excellent model for research on the diversity of genes and molecular mechanisms involved in pheromone production. Herein, we assembled the pheromone gland transcriptome of S. insularis by next-generation sequencing and identified 74 genes encoding candidate key enzymes involved in the fatty acid biosynthesis, β-oxidation, and functional group modification. In addition, tissue expression patterns further showed that an acetyl-CoA carboxylase and two desaturases were highly expressed in the pheromone glands compared with the other tissues, indicating possible roles in S. insularis sex pheromone biosynthesis. Finally, we proposed putative S. insularis biosynthetic pathways for sex pheromone components and highlighted candidate genes. Our findings lay a solid foundation for understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning S. insularis sex pheromone biosynthesis, and provide potential targets for disrupting chemical communication that could assist the development of novel pest control methods.
Highlights
Lepidoptera sex pheromones, which are usually secreted by female moths to attract conspecific males, play a key role in sexual communication, and are used as a monitoring and trapping tool in integrated pest management programs [1,2,3]
In the present study, we first constructed a transcriptome library of S. insularis pheromone gland (PG) and identified a series of genes that might be involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis
A total of 63,881,910, 54,395,274, and 58,219,720 raw reads were obtained from each library
Summary
Lepidoptera sex pheromones, which are usually secreted by female moths to attract conspecific males, play a key role in sexual communication, and are used as a monitoring and trapping tool in integrated pest management programs [1,2,3]. In the present study, we first constructed a transcriptome library of S. insularis PGs and identified a series of genes that might be involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis. In the S. insularis PG transcriptome, we identified two ACCs with lengths of 723 and 7616 bp (Table 2 and S1 Text), similar to the numbers reported previously for other moth species (two in A. ipsilon [59], one in P. xylostella [25], and one in A. segetum [58]).
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