Transcriptome and gene expression analysis of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) during developmental stages

Hongjun Yang; Danping Xu; Zhihang Zhuo; Jiameng Hu; Baoqian Lu

doi:10.7717/peerj.10223

Transcriptome and gene expression analysis of Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) during developmental stages

PeerJ. 2020 Nov 2:8:e10223. doi: 10.7717/peerj.10223. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Hongjun Yang^{1

2}, Danping Xu¹, Zhihang Zhuo^{1

2

3}, Jiameng Hu², Baoqian Lu⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Life Science, China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Genetics and Germplasm Innovation of Tropical Special Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Germplasm Resources Biology of Tropical Special Ornamental Plants of Hainan Province, College of Forestry, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan,China.
³ Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Crops in South China, Ministry of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Tropical Crops, Ministry of Agriculture China, Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, Hainan, China.

Abstract

Background: Red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier, is one of the most destructive pests harming palm trees. However, genomic resources for R. ferrugineus are still lacking, limiting the ability to discover molecular and genetic means of pest control.

Methods: In this study, PacBio Iso-Seq and Illumina RNA-seq were used to generate transcriptome from three developmental stages of R. ferrugineus (pupa, 7th-instar larva, adult) to increase the understanding of the life cycle and molecular characteristics of the pest.

Results: Sequencing generated 625,983,256 clean reads, from which 63,801 full-length transcripts were assembled with N50 of 3,547 bp. Expression analyses revealed 8,583 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Moreover, gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis revealed that these DEGs were mainly related to the peroxisome pathway which associated with metabolic pathways, material transportation and organ tissue formation. In summary, this work provides a valuable basis for further research on the growth and development, gene expression and gene prediction, and pest control of R. ferrugineus.

Keywords: Different developmental stage; Differentially expressed genes; RNA-Seq; Single-molecule sequencing; Transcriptome.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Hainan Natural Science Foundation Project (No. 319QN163), the Fund Project of Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management on Crops in South China, Ministry of Agriculture, P. R. China (No. SCIPM2018-04) and the Research Initiation Project of Hainan University (No. KYQD[ZR]1823). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.