Abstract
The pine moth Dendrolimus punctatus (Walker) is a common insect pest that confers serious damage to conifer forests in south of China. Extensive physiology and ecology studies on D. punctatus have been carried out, but the lack of genetic information has limited our understanding of the molecular mechanisms behind its development and resistance. Using RNA-seq approach, we characterized the transcriptome of this pine moth and investigated its developmental expression profiles during egg, larval, pupal, and adult stages. A total of 107.6 million raw reads were generated that were assembled into 70,664 unigenes. More than 30% unigenes were annotated by searching for homology in protein databases. To better understand the process of metamorphosis, we pairwise compared four developmental phases and obtained 17,624 differential expression genes. Functional enrichment analysis of differentially expressed genes showed positive correlation with specific physiological activities of each stage, and these results were confirmed by qRT-PCR experiments. This study provides a valuable genomic resource of D. punctatus covering all its developmental stages, and will promote future studies on biological processes at the molecular level.
Highlights
The forest coverage of China is relatively low, and more than half of the forests consist of coniferous trees
We focused on an important forest pest, the pine moth D. punctatus (Walker), and performed the comprehensive transcriptome analysis during its four life stages–egg, larva, pupa, and adult
To comprehensively obtain the D. punctatus transcriptome, a library consisting of all its life stages including egg, larva, pupa, and adult, was constructed and sequenced, which produced 107. 6 million raw reads in total
Summary
The forest coverage of China is relatively low, and more than half of the forests consist of coniferous trees. The pine moth, Dendrolimus punctatus Walker (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) is a serious pest of coniferous trees [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The caterpillar stage of this moth feeds on the leaves of conifers, especially masson pine (Pinus massoniana), and may cause their heavy and sometimes total defoliation, dieback, and death [3]. The moth species is native to south of China and could produce up to four generations per year [1, 2, 6]. It can potentially outbreak in areas of low rainfall or during periods of drought [4]. The caterpillars cover the roads and frequently cause human and livestock poisoning [3], causing significant ecological, economic, and social problems
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