Abstract
Due to their abundance and ability to invade diverse environments, many arthropods have become pests of economic and health concern, especially in urban areas. Transcriptomic analyses of arthropod ovaries have provided insight into life history variation and fecundity, yet there are few studies in spiders despite their diversity within arthropods. Here, we generated a de novo ovarian transcriptome from 10 individuals of the western black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus), a human health pest of high abundance in urban areas, to conduct comparative ovarian transcriptomic analyses. Biological processes enriched for metabolism—specifically purine, and thiamine metabolic pathways linked to oocyte development—were significantly abundant in L. hesperus. Functional and pathway annotations revealed overlap among diverse arachnid ovarian transcriptomes for highly-conserved genes and those linked to fecundity, such as oocyte maturation in vitellogenin and vitelline membrane outer layer proteins, hormones, and hormone receptors required for ovary development, and regulation of fertility-related genes. Comparative studies across arachnids are greatly needed to understand the evolutionary similarities of the spider ovary, and here, the identification of ovarian proteins in L. hesperus provides potential for understanding how increased fecundity is linked to the success of this urban pest.
Highlights
Arthropods have long been used as models in studying life history variation and evolutionary adaptation [1,2,3]
From an ecological and evolutionary perspective, some of the more interesting examples come from those arthropod pest species that are anthropogenic obligates to the extent that they have become threats to human health
The overall objective of this study was to construct a de novo ovarian transcriptome for L. hesperus to compare with other spiders and arthropods in identifying genes and pathways associated with ovarian expression and function
Summary
Arthropods have long been used as models in studying life history variation and evolutionary adaptation [1,2,3]. One of the most important life history traits is fecundity, as it is closely tied to fitness, and studies of fecundity and population abundance highlight the arthropod literature [4,5,6]. Arthropods dominate the literature as invasive and pest species as a result of their high fecundity and ability to rapidly adapt to different environments, which include the urban and agricultural areas that humans have created. From an ecological and evolutionary perspective, some of the more interesting examples come from those arthropod pest species that are anthropogenic obligates to the extent that they have become threats to human health. Cockroaches, bedbugs, and even mosquito species [14,15,16] have adapted to these
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