De novo transcriptome analysis and identification of genes associated with immunity, detoxification and energy metabolism from the fat body of the tephritid gall fly, Procecidochares utilis

PLoS One. 2019 Dec 17;14(12):e0226039. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226039. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

The fat body, a multifunctional organ analogous to the liver and fat tissue of vertebrates, plays an important role in insect life cycles. The fat body is involved in protein storage, energy metabolism, elimination of xenobiotics, and production of immunity regulator-like proteins. However, the molecular mechanism of the fat body's physiological functions in the tephritid stem gall-forming fly, Procecidochares utilis, are still unknown. In this study, we performed transcriptome analysis of the fat body of P. utilis using Illumina sequencing technology. In total, 3.71 G of clean reads were obtained and assembled into 30,559 unigenes, with an average length of 539 bp. Among those unigenes, 21,439 (70.16%) were annotated based on sequence similarity to proteins in NCBI's non-redundant protein sequence database (Nr). Sequences were also compared to NCBI's non-redundant nucleotide sequence database (Nt), a manually curated and reviewed protein sequence database (SwissProt), and KEGG and gene ontology annotations were applied to better understand the functions of these unigenes. A comparative analysis was performed to identify unigenes related to detoxification, immunity and energy metabolism. Many unigenes involved in detoxification were identified, including 50 unigenes of putative cytochrome P450s (P450s), 18 of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), 35 of carboxylesterases (CarEs) and 26 of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters. Many unigenes related to immunity were identified, including 17 putative serpin genes, five peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) and four lysozyme genes. In addition, unigenes potentially involved in energy metabolism, including 18 lipase genes, five fatty acid synthase (FAS) genes and six elongases of very long chain fatty acid (ELOVL) genes, were identified. This transcriptome improves our genetic understanding of P. utilis and the identification of a numerous transcripts in the fat body of P. utilis offer a series of valuable molecular resources for future studies on the functions of these genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / classification
  • ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / genetics
  • ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters / metabolism
  • Animals
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / classification
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / genetics
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / metabolism
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / classification
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / genetics
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / metabolism
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Energy Metabolism / genetics*
  • Fat Body / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression Profiling / methods
  • Gene Ontology
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Immunity / genetics*
  • Inactivation, Metabolic / genetics*
  • Microsatellite Repeats
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Tephritidae / genetics*
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31860521, 31501706 and 31460491). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.