Transcriptome analysis reveals molecular strategies of Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) larvae in response to anoxia

Abstract

• First data set for Bactrocera dorsalis transcriptome related to oxygen. • Hypoxia stress induces changes of B. dorsalis signaling and metabolic pathways. • Heat shock protein expression increased significantly during anoxia and recovery. • HIF was found in DEGs of B.dorsalis after hypoxia stress but not during hypoxia. Bactrocera dorsalis and its larvae have evolved to cope with the hypoxic environment during their lifetime. In this study, we sequenced the transcriptomes of B. dorsalis under and post anoxia stress. Our data revealed the different biological mechanisms of B. dorsalis in response to anoxia and during recovery from anoxia. The induction of heat shock proteins (HSPs) might be one of the important mechanisms for B. dorsalis to tolerate anoxia. Furthermore, our data showed B. dorsalis acquires energy through gluconeogenesis rather than glycolysis under anoxia and upregulated its lipid metabolism post anoxia. The up-regulation of the genes involved in the Hippo signaling pathway might also play a role in eliminating damaged cells as a result of anoxia. Furthermore, the HIF system of B. dorsalis did not change in response to anoxia stress in this study. We hypothesized that the HIF system in B. dorsalis might be activated by a specific duration of anoxia.