A replicated, whole-insect transcriptomic dataset for Nezara viridula (southern green stink bug) spanning developmental stadia and sexes

Abstract

The southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), is a serious agricultural pest insect causing economic damage in the western hemisphere. Although transcriptome resources exist for adults of this species at both midgut-only and whole-insect levels, data for juvenile developmental stadia are not currently available. Sequence data reported in this study close this gap, providing a substantial increase of extrinsic evidence for use in improving gene annotations in the southern green stink bug genome project, for example. Analysis of these data identify 21,380 putative transcripts associated with differentially expressed genes, providing a list of potential targets for downstream experimental characterization of gene function.

Keywords: Agricultural pests; Gene expression; Invasive insects; Southern green stink bug; Transcriptomics.

Fig. 1

Nezara viridula adult, nymph and egg mass. Insect images copyright Alex Surcică and used herein with permission.

Fig. 2

Principal component analysis of gene expression among all 12 RNA-Seq samples. Legend labels correspond to the following sample types: 2 ∼ 2nd nymphal instars, 4 ∼ 4th nymphal instars, F ∼ female adults, and M ∼ male adults.

Fig. 3

Venn diagram depicting counts of shared (or unique) differentially expressed genes (DEGs) among the six basic sample comparisons considered in this study. Note that whether a DEG was up- or down-regulated was not considered for the amounts reported here—that is, a DEG up-regulated in one context and down-regulated in another was counted as a single DEG. Comparison labels indicate the following: n2n4 ∼ 2nd nymphal instar vs 4th nymphal instar, n2aM ∼ 2nd nymphal instar vs male adult, n2aF ∼ 2nd nymphal instar vs female adult, n4aM ∼ 4th nymphal instar vs male adult, n4aF ∼ 4th nymphal instar vs female adult, and aFaM ∼ female adult vs male adult.