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. 2015 Feb 6;10(2):e0117054.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117054. eCollection 2015.

Antennal transcriptome analysis and comparison of chemosensory gene families in two closely related noctuidae moths, Helicoverpa armigera and H. assulta

Jin Zhang  1 , Bing Wang  2 , Shuanglin Dong  3 , Depan Cao  2 , Junfeng Dong  4 , William B Walker  5 , Yang Liu  2 , Guirong Wang  2
Affiliations

Antennal transcriptome analysis and comparison of chemosensory gene families in two closely related noctuidae moths, Helicoverpa armigera and H. assulta

Jin Zhang et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

To better understand the olfactory mechanisms in the two lepidopteran pest model species, the Helicoverpa armigera and H. assulta, we conducted transcriptome analysis of the adult antennae using Illumina sequencing technology and compared the chemosensory genes between these two related species. Combined with the chemosensory genes we had identified previously in H. armigera by 454 sequencing, we identified 133 putative chemosensory unigenes in H. armigera including 60 odorant receptors (ORs), 19 ionotropic receptors (IRs), 34 odorant binding proteins (OBPs), 18 chemosensory proteins (CSPs), and 2 sensory neuron membrane proteins (SNMPs). Consistent with these results, 131 putative chemosensory genes including 64 ORs, 19 IRs, 29 OBPs, 17 CSPs, and 2 SNMPs were identified through male and female antennal transcriptome analysis in H. assulta. Reverse Transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) was conducted in H. assulta to examine the accuracy of the assembly and annotation of the transcriptome and the expression profile of these unigenes in different tissues. Most of the ORs, IRs and OBPs were enriched in adult antennae, while almost all the CSPs were expressed in antennae as well as legs. We compared the differences of the chemosensory genes between these two species in detail. Our work will surely provide valuable information for further functional studies of pheromones and host volatile recognition genes in these two related species.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Gene ontology (GO) classification of the H. armigera and H. assulta unigenes with Blast2GO program.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Phylogenetic tree of putative H. armigera and H. assulta ORs with other Lepidoptera ORs.
This tree was constructed using FastTree based on alignment results of MAFFT. Harm: H. armigera (black), Hass: H. assulta (red), Bmor: B. mori (blue), Hvir: H. virescens (purple).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Tissue- and sex- specific expression of H. assulta candidate OR genes.
M: male antennae, F: female antennae, L: legs (both sexes mixed).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Phylogenetic tree of putative H. armigera and H. assulta IRs with IRs from other insects.
This tree was constructed using FastTree based on alignment results of MAFFT. Harm: H. armigera (black), Hass: H. assulta (red), Bmor: B. mori (blue), Slit: S. littoralis (purple), Dmel: D. melanogaster (green).
Figure 5
Figure 5. Tissue- and sex- specific expressions of H. assulta candidate IR and SNMP genes.
M: male antennae, F: female antennae, L: legs (both sexes mixed).
Figure 6
Figure 6. Phylogenetic tree of putative H. armigera and H. assulta OBPs with OBPs from other insects.
The shown tree was constructed using FastTree based on alignment results of MAFFT. Harm: H. armigera (black), Hass: H. assulta (red), Bmor: B. mori (blue), Hvir: H. virescens (purple).
Figure 7
Figure 7. Tissue- and sex- specific expressions of H. assulta candidate OBP genes.
M: male antennae, F: female antennae, L: legs (both sexes mixed).
Figure 8
Figure 8. Phylogenetic tree of putative H. armigera and H. assulta CSPs with CSPs from other insects.
The shown tree was constructed using FastTree based on alignment results of MAFFT. Harm: H. armigera (black), Hass: H. assulta (red), Harm: H. armigera (green), Bmor: B. mori (blue), Hvir: H. virescens (purple).
Figure 9
Figure 9. Tissue- and sex- specific expressions of H. assulta candidate CSP genes.
M: male antennae, F: female antennae, L: legs (both sexes mixed).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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