Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Nov 26;4(4):712-30.
doi: 10.3390/insects4040712.

Functional Immunomics of the Squash Bug, Anasa tristis (De Geer) (Heteroptera: Coreidae)

Kent S Shelby  1
Affiliations

Functional Immunomics of the Squash Bug, Anasa tristis (De Geer) (Heteroptera: Coreidae)

Kent S Shelby. Insects. .

Abstract

The Squash bug, Anasa tristis (De Geer), is a major piercing/sucking pest of cucurbits, causing extensive damage to plants and fruits, and transmitting phytopathogens. No genomic resources to facilitate field and laboratory studies of this pest were available; therefore the first de novo exome for this destructive pest was assembled. RNA was extracted from insects challenged with bacterial and fungal immunoelicitors, insects fed on different cucurbit species, and insects from all life stages from egg to adult. All treatments and replicates were separately barcoded for subsequent analyses, then pooled for sequencing in a single lane using the Illumina HiSeq2000 platform. Over 211 million 100-base tags generated in this manner were trimmed, filtered, and cleaned, then assembled into a de novo reference transcriptome using the Broad Institute Trinity assembly algorithm. The assembly was annotated using NCBIx NR, BLAST2GO, KEGG and other databases. Of the >130,000 total assemblies 37,327 were annotated identifying the sequences of candidate gene silencing targets from immune, endocrine, reproductive, cuticle, and other physiological systems. Expression profiling of the adult immune response was accomplished by aligning the 100-base tags from each biological replicate from each treatment and controls to the annotated reference assembly of the A. tristis transcriptome.

Keywords: PAMPs; PRRs; RNA-seq; anacin; cucurbits; entomopathogen response; expression profiling; squash bug.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Anasa tristis transcriptome assembly Top BLAST hits across insects and other invertebrate species. Highest number of hits was against the insect species most closely related to A. tristis, and which has a sequenced genome, Acyrthosiphon pisum (green).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genome ontology analysis of the Anasa tristis transcriptome assembly. BGI WEGO plot of Cellular Component, Molecular Function, and Biological Process GOs are shown.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) Agriculture Statistics 2012. United States Government Printing Office; Washington, DC, USA: 2012.
    1. Pair S.D., Bruton B.D., Mitchell F., Fletcher J., Wayadande A., Melcher U. Overwintering squash bugs harbor and transmit the causal agent of Cucurbit Yellow Vine Disease. J. Econ. Entomol. 2009;97:74–78. - PubMed
    1. Nechols J.R., Tracy J.L., Vogt E.A. Comparative ecological studies of indiginous egg parastioids (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae; Encyrtidae) of the squash bug Anasa tristis (Hemiptera: Coreidae) J. Kans. Entomol. Soc. 1989;62:177–188.
    1. Olson D.L., Nechols J.R. Effects of squash leaf trichome exudates and honey on adult feeding, survival, and fecundity of the squash bug (Heteroptera: Coreidae) egg parasitoid Gryon pennsylvanicum (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) Envion. Entomol. 1995;24:454–458.
    1. Vogt E.A., Nechols J.R. Responses of the squash bug (Hemiptera: Coreidae) and its egg parasitoid, Gryon pennsylvanicum (Hymenoptera: Scelionidae) to three Curcurbita cultivars. Environ. Entomol. 1993;22:238–245.

LinkOut - more resources