Characterization and Comparative Profiling of MicroRNAs in a Sexual Dimorphism Insect, Eupolyphaga sinensis Walker

Abstract

BackgroundMicroRNAs are now recognized as key post-transcriptional regulators in animal ontogenesis and phenotypic diversity. Eupolyphaga sinensis Walker (Blattaria) is a sexually dimorphic insect, which is also an important source of material used in traditional Chinese medicine. The male E. sinensis have shorter lifecycles and go through fewer instars than the female. Furthermore, the males have forewings, while the females are totally wingless.ResultsWe used the Illumina/Solexa deep sequencing technology to sequence small RNA libraries prepared from the fourth-instar larvae of male and female E. sinensis. 19,097,799 raw reads were yielded in total: 7,817,445 reads from the female library and 11,280,354 from the male, respectively. As a result, we identified 168 known miRNAs belonging to 55 families as well as 204 novel miRNAs. Moreover, 45 miRNAs showed significantly different expression between the female and the male fourth-instar larvae, and we validated 10 of them by Stem-loop qRT-PCR. Some of these differentially expressed miRNAs are related to metamorphosis, development and phenotypic diversity.Conclusions/SignificanceThis is the first comprehensive description of miRNAs in E. sinensis. The results provide a useful resource for further in-depth study on molecular regulation and evolution of miRNAs. These findings not only enrich miRNAs for hemimetabolans but also lay the foundation for the study of post-transcriptional regulation on the phenomena of sexual dimorphism.

MicroRNAs of two medically important mosquito species: Aedes aegypti and Anopheles stephensi

“…Another miRNA cluster that showed strong expression enriched in the embryonic stage is the miR-309/2944a/2944b/286 cluster, which contains miRNAs that are conserved in metazoan or insect species (Table S1 and S2). The expression patterns we observed in two mosquitos are consistent with those in flies (Leaman et al, 2005; Ninova et al, 2014), beetles (Marco et al, 2010), and moths (Wu et al, 2013). The miR-309 cluster has been shown to play roles in the degradation of maternal transcripts during maternal zygotic transition (MZT) in Drosophila (Bushati et al, 2008).…”

Genome‐wide identification, expression profiling, and target gene analysis of microRNAs in the Onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), vectors of tospoviruses (Bunyaviridae)

“…MicroRNAs are known from more than 25 insect species, (Stark et al., 2007). Several miRNAs have been reported from various orders of insects such as Diptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Homoptera (Wu et al., 2013), and Thysanoptera (Rebijith, Asokan, Hande, & Krishna Kumar, 2016). This study reports the complete miRNA profile from onion thrips, Thrips tabaci .…”

“…Our homology and phylogeny analysis revealed that insect miRNAs are well‐conserved, despite considerable diversity in the genome (Figure 4a–d). MiRNA*s are not easily detectable as it degrades soon after being exported to the cytosol (Wu et al., 2013). However, our results indicated the presence of several miRNA*s (Tables 5 and 6) that matched to the same precursor sequences with their mismatched complementary mature miRNAs.…”

“…High‐throughput next‐generation sequencing (NGS) emerged as a powerful tool to identify miRNAs from animals and plants (Calla & Geib, 2015; Guillem, Bastian, Maria‐Dolors, & Xavier, 2016; Nandety, Sharif, Kamita, Ramasamy, & Falk, 2015; Song et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2012; Wu et al., 2013). It has accelerated the pace of miRNA discovery from various animals and plants (Avesson, Reimegard, Wagner, & Söderbom, 2012; Burnside et al., 2008; Ge et al., 2013; Hu et al., 2012; Kang et al., 2012; Koh et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2012).…”

“…MiRNAs are reported from about 25 species of insects belonging to various orders (Stark et al., 2007; Wu et al., 2013). No information is available on T. tabaci miRNA content and function.…”