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. 2021 Jan 12;58(1):139-145.
doi: 10.1093/jme/tjaa167.

Transcript Assembly and Quantification by RNA-Seq Reveals Significant Differences in Gene Expression and Genetic Variants in Mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) Complex

David S Kang  1 , Sungshil Kim  1 , Michael A Cotten  1 , Cheolho Sim  1
Affiliations

Transcript Assembly and Quantification by RNA-Seq Reveals Significant Differences in Gene Expression and Genetic Variants in Mosquitoes of the Culex pipiens (Diptera: Culicidae) Complex

David S Kang et al. J Med Entomol. .

Abstract

The taxonomy of Culex pipiens complex of mosquitoes is still debated, but in North America it is generally regarded to include Culex pipiens pipiens, Culex pipiens molestus, and Culex quinquefasciatus (or Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus). Although these mosquitoes have very similar morphometry, they each have unique life strategies specifically adapted to their ecological niche. Differences include the capability for overwintering diapause, bloodmeal preference, mating behaviors, and reliance on blood meals to produce eggs. Here, we used RNA-seq transcriptome analysis to investigate the differential gene expression and nucleotide polymorphisms that may link to the divergent traits specifically between Cx. pipiens pipiens and Cx. pipiens molestus.

Keywords: Culex pipiens complex; RNA-seq; genetic variants.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Flow charts for the RNA-sequencing data analysis. Data file types are indicated at the either side (*). Each group of node is also colored by file type. Software platforms are shown in italics.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Volcano plot of Cx. pipiens molestus specific up- (right arrow) and Cx. pipiens pipiens specific up-regulated (left arrow) genes. The x-axis specifies the fold-changes and the y-axis specifies the negative logarithm to the base 10 of the t-test p-values. The horizontal line indicates the filtering criteria (P-value = 0.05)
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Distribution of the Gene Ontology (GO) functional categories and transcriptome-wide sequence variants. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) identified using RNA-Seq of the Cx. pipiens pipiens (A) and Cx. pipiens molestus (B) were classified into GO categories based on biological process, molecular function, and cellular component. Venn diagram depicting overlap between DEGs and missense variants (C), variants in 5′-UTR (D), and variants in 3′-UTR (E) using SnpEff and SnpSift.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Expression abundance of female Cx. pipiens pipiens and Cx. pipiens molestus at 7 d after adult eclosion via quantitative real-time PCR. Ribosomal protein large subunit 19 (RpL19) as a loading control. Error bars represent standard error.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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