Abstract

BackgroundAnastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 is considered a quarantine pest in several American countries. Since chemical control applied in an integrated pest management program is the only strategy utilized against this pest, the development of pesticide-free methods, such as the Sterile Insect Technique, is being considered. The search for genes involved in sex-determination and differentiation, and in metabolic pathways associated with communication and mating behaviour, contributes with key information to the development of genetic control strategies. The aims of this work were to perform a comprehensive analysis of A. fraterculus sp. 1 transcriptome and to obtain an initial evaluation of genes associated with main metabolic pathways by the expression analysis of specific transcripts identified in embryos and adults.ResultsSexually mature adults of both sexes and 72 h embryos were considered for transcriptome analysis. The de novo transcriptome assembly was fairly complete (62.9% complete BUSCO orthologs detected) with a total of 86,925 transcripts assembled and 28,756 GO annotated sequences. Paired-comparisons between libraries showed 319 transcripts differently expressed between embryos and females, 1242 between embryos and males, and 464 between sexes. Using this information and genes searches based on published studies from other tephritid species, we evaluated a set of transcripts involved in development, courtship and metabolic pathways. The qPCR analysis evidenced that the early genes serendipity alpha and transformer-2 displayed similar expression levels in the analyzed stages, while heat shock protein 27 is over-expressed in embryos and females in comparison to males. The expression of genes associated with courtship (takeout-like, odorant-binding protein 50a1) differed between males and females, independently of their reproductive status (virgin vs mated individuals). Genes associated with metabolic pathways (maltase 2-like, androgen-induced gene 1) showed differential expression between embryos and adults. Furthermore, 14,262 microsatellite motifs were identified, with 11,208 transcripts containing at least one simple sequence repeat, including 48% of di/trinucleotide motifs.ConclusionOur results significantly expand the available gene space of A. fraterculus sp. 1, contributing with a fairly complete transcript database of embryos and adults. The expression analysis of the selected candidate genes, along with a set of microsatellite markers, provides a valuable resource for further genetic characterization of A. fraterculus sp. 1 and supports the development of specific genetic control strategies.

Highlights

  • Anastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 is considered a quarantine pest in several American countries

  • We obtained a total of 471,646 Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) hits against our A. fraterculus sp. 1 transcriptome and evidenced that the most highly represented species was C. capitata (18.6% of BLAST hits) followed by Z. cucurbitae (16.7%) and by B. dorsalis (14.1%)

  • When only the top BLAST hit was analyzed, B. dorsalis appeared in the first position with 18, 642 hits, followed by Z. cucurbitae (16,823 hits) and C. capitata (15,333 hits)

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Summary

Introduction

Anastrepha fraterculus sp. 1 is considered a quarantine pest in several American countries. The South American fruit fly, Anastrepha fraterculus Wiedemann (Diptera: Tephritidae), is considered one of the most economically important pest species in several American countries. This species has broad geographical distribution and a wide host range, attacking at least 110 host plant species including major fruit crops [1,2,3,4,5]. SIT has been successfully used in eradication programs against the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata [15], Bactrocera dorsalis and other Bactrocera species [16] It is currently being applied against Anastrepha ludens, and A. obligua [17,18,19]. Only chemical approaches have been used to control A. fraterculus populations in the field to date [20]

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