The Developmental Transcriptome of Bagworm, Metisa plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) and Insights into Chitin Biosynthesis Genes.

Nur Lina Rahmat,Nor-Azlan Nor Muhammad,Cik Mohd Rizuan Zainal Abidin,Maizom Hassan,Anis Nadyra Zifruddin

doi:10.3390/genes12010007

Nur Lina Rahmat, Nor-Azlan Nor Muhammad + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12010007

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Journal: Genes	Publication Date: Dec 23, 2020
Citations: 5	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National University of Malaysia

Abstract

Bagworm, Metisa plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae) is a ubiquitous insect pest in the oil palm plantations. M. plana infestation could reduce the oil palm productivity by 40% if it remains untreated over two consecutive years. Despite the urgency to tackle this issue, the genome and transcriptome of M. plana have not yet been fully elucidated. Here, we report a comprehensive transcriptome dataset from four different developmental stages of M. plana, comprising of egg, third instar larva, pupa and female adult. The de novo transcriptome assembly of the raw data had produced a total of 193,686 transcripts, which were then annotated against UniProt, NCBI non-redundant (NR) database, Gene Ontology, Cluster of Orthologous Group, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases. From this, 46,534 transcripts were annotated and mapped to 146 known metabolic or signalling KEGG pathways. The paper further identified 41 differentially expressed transcripts encoding seven genes in the chitin biosynthesis pathways, and their expressions across each developmental stage were further analysed. The genetic diversity of M. plana was profiled whereby there were 21,516 microsatellite sequences and 379,895 SNPs loci found in the transcriptome of M. plana. These datasets add valuable transcriptomic resources for further study of developmental gene expression, transcriptional regulations and functional gene activities involved in the development of M. plana. Identification of regulatory genes in the chitin biosynthesis pathway may also help in developing an RNAi-mediated pest control management by targeting certain pathways, and functional studies of the genes in M. plana.

Highlights

Oil palm is currently Malaysia’s most dominant oil crop with 4,186,914 hectares of oil palm plantations, occupying up to 71.6% of the agricultural land by 2018 [1]
We provided a high throughput transcriptome profiling from four different stages of M. plana including egg, third instar larva, pupa, and female adult
To identify genes that contributed to the development of the morphology and functions of M. plana during metamorphosis, the RNA was extracted at four different developmental stages (Figure 1A–D)

Summary

Introduction

Oil palm is currently Malaysia’s most dominant oil crop with 4,186,914 hectares of oil palm plantations, occupying up to 71.6% of the agricultural land by 2018 [1]. In 2015, the world market value of oil palm reached USD 65.73 billion, and it is predicted to reach USD. M. plana (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), bagworm is one of the most destructive insect pest defoliators in the oil palm industry, in Southeast Asia. M. plana is a holometabolous insect that completes its development from 80 to 113 days, depending on the climate of the time it grows. M. plana development starts from the laying of eggs (Figure 1A) from a mated female, and hatching into neonates, a term used to describe the newly hatched larva. The neonates will feed on oil palm leaves within 1–2 h of emergence to construct a small bag at the posterior end of their body. The case will enlarge progressively with the amount of the plant materials it feeds on and the body size of the

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