Cloning of a new HSP70 gene from western flowerthrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, and expression patterns during thermal stress

Xiao-Xiang Zhang; Jing Qin; Jia-Wen Yuan; Ming-Xing Lu; Yu-Zhou Du

doi:10.7717/peerj.7687

Cloning of a new HSP70 gene from western flowerthrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, and expression patterns during thermal stress

PeerJ. 2019 Sep 25:7:e7687. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7687. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Xiao-Xiang Zhang¹, Jing Qin¹, Jia-Wen Yuan¹, Ming-Xing Lu¹, Yu-Zhou Du^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Horticulture and Plant Protection & Institute of Applied Entomology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety, The Ministry of Education, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.

Abstract

Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) is an invasive pest that endangers a wide variety of horticultural and agronomic crops. HSP70 is the most important member of the heat shock protein (HSP) family and plays an important role in insect thermal tolerance. In this study, a new gene encoding HSP70 from F. occidentalis, Fohsp706, was selected from the F. occidentalis transcriptome exposed to thermal stress (40 °C) and cloned by RT-PCR and RACE. Further characterization indicated that Fohsp706 localizes to the cytoplasm and does not contain introns. Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR indicated that Fohsp706 expression was significantly up-regulated by thermal stress; furthermore, there were significant differences in Fohsp706 expression in adults and second instar nymphs after heat stress. Our results indicated that Fohsp706 contributes to thermotolerance in F. occidentalis and provides another example of how this pest adapts to unfavorable environmental conditions.

Keywords: Expression pattern; Frankliniella occidentalis; HSP70; Recovery time; Temperature.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Special Fund for Agro-Scientific Research in the Public Interest of China (201103026, 200803025) and the Science and Technology Innovation Project of Student in Yangzhou University, China (X20160637). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.