Abstract
The Asian gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar) is a serious pest of forest and shade trees in many Asian and some European countries. However, there have been few studies of L. dispar genetic information and comprehensive genetic analyses of this species are needed in order to understand its genetic and metabolic sensitivities, such as the molting mechanism during larval development. In this study, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to sequence the transcriptome of the Asian subspecies of the gyspy moth, after which a comprehensive analysis of chitin metabolism was undertaken. We generated 37,750,380 high-quality reads and assembled them into contigs. A total of 37,098 unigenes were identified, of which 15,901 were annotated in the NCBI non-redundant protein database and 9,613 were annotated in the Swiss-Prot database. We mapped 4,329 unigenes onto 317 pathways using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway database. Chitin metabolism unigenes were found in the transcriptome and the data indicated that a variety of enzymes was involved in chitin catabolic and biosynthetic pathways.
Highlights
The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), is one of the most destructive polyphagous pests in forests, agro-ecosystems, shade trees and shrubs, with more than 500 host plants identified so far (Matsuki et al, 2010; Peric-Mataruga et al, 2014)
The results revealed that 24 unigenes were related to the chitin catabolic process (GO: 0006032) and 86 unigenes were related to the chitin metabolic process (GO: 0006030); only three unigenes related to the chitin biosynthetic process
The synthesis of chitin relies on two key enzymes, chitin synthase (CHS) and glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferase (GFAT), which provides the GlcNAc precursor for the chitin biosynthetic pathway
Summary
The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae), is one of the most destructive polyphagous pests in forests, agro-ecosystems, shade trees and shrubs, with more than 500 host plants identified so far (Matsuki et al, 2010; Peric-Mataruga et al, 2014). Subspecies of the gypsy moth occur in Europe, North Africa, Asia and North America (Manderino et al, 2014). TheAsian form’ has a wider host range than those in Europe and North America (Roy et al, 1995). A substantial effort has been made to slow the spread of the moth, including attempts to fully control this insect pest. Control measures that have been implemented in China to reduce the spread of this plant pathogen include the release of natural enemies such as Coccygomimus disparis, the application of chemical pesticides (mainly organophosphates, Chitin is a polysaccharide long-chain polymer comprised of b-(1,4)-N-acetylglucosamine residues and is a vital component of the insect cuticle and peritrophic membrane (PM) (Kramer et al, 1995). The synthesis of chitin relies on two key enzymes, chitin synthase (CHS)
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