Transcriptomics and identification of candidate chemosensory genes in antennae of Conogethes punctiferalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract

To investigate chemoreception genes in Conogethes punctiferalis, antennal transcriptome of male and female samples were sequenced and analyzed. A total number of 54,442,128 and 51,132,998 clean reads from male and female samples were obtained respectively. By de novo assembly, a total of 51,240 unigenes for both sexes was generated. Among all unigenes, 26,509 showed similarity to known proteins after alignment to Nr protein database by blastx. Go analysis, KEGG pathway analysis and Protein coding region prediction were also performed subsequently to annotate gene functions. A total of 29 candidate odorant binding proteins (OBPs) including 2 general odorant binding proteins (GOBPs) and 5 pheromone binding protein (PBP), as well as 59 odorant receptors (ORs) were identified. Additionally, 10 chemosensory proteins (CSPs) and 19 ionotropic receptors (IRs) were annotated. With gene expression comparison, 920 up-regulated and 684 down-regulated genes were found in female antennae transcriptome, compared with that of the male. Differently expression levels of 9 chemosensory genes including PBPs up-regulated in the male were detected. Results of this study provide basic information about C. punctiferalis chemoreception genes, which helps to understand pheromone communication in this species and may benefit control of this pest with pheromonal techniques.