Transcriptome analysis of sex-biased gene expression in the spotted-wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura)

Abstract

Sexual dimorphism occurs widely throughout insects and has profound influences on evolutionary path. Sex-biased genes are considered to account for most of phenotypic differences between sexes. In order to explore the sex-biased genes potentially associated with sexual dimorphism and sexual development in Drosophila suzukii, a major devastating and invasive crop pest, we conducted whole-organism transcriptome profiling and sex-biased gene expression analysis on adults of both sexes. We identified transcripts of genes involved in several sex-specific physiological and functional processes, including transcripts involved in sex determination, reproduction, olfaction and innate immune signals. A total of 11,360 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in the comparison, and 5,041 DEGs were female-biased and 6,319 DEGs were male-biased. The pathway predominantly enriched for DEGs were related to spliceosome, which might reflect the differences in the alternative splicing mechanism between males and females. Twenty-two sex determination and sixteen sex-related reproduction genes were identified, and expression pattern analysis revealed that the majority of genes were differentially expressed between sexes. Additionally, the differences in sex-specific olfactory and immune processes were analyzed and the sex-biased expression of these genes may play important roles in pheromone and odour detection, and immune response. As a valuable dataset, our sex-specific transcriptomic data can significantly contribute to the fundamental elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of sexual dimorphism in fruit flies, and may provide candidate genes potentially useful for the development of genetic sexing strains, an important tool for sterile insect technique applications against this economically important species.

Functional transcriptome analyses of Drosophila suzukii midgut reveal mating-dependent reproductive plasticity in females

“…D. suzukii were fed on an artificial diet consisting of cornmeal, yeast, soy flour, maltose syrup and agar at Hunan Normal University (Changsha, China) and cultured at 25 °C under 12 h light: 12 h dark photoperiod [ 98 ]. Methyl 4-hydroxybenzoate was used as a preservative to prevent the overgrowth of fungi and bacteria.…”

“…The resulting P -values were corrected using the Benjamini and Hochberg’s method for managing the false discovery rate (FDR). Genes with an corrected P -value < 0.05 found by DESeq2 were appointed as differentially expressed genes (DEGs) [ 98 ]. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of DEGs was performed by Phyper based on Hypergeometric test [ 104 ].…”

“…Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis of DEGs was performed by Phyper based on Hypergeometric test [ 104 ]. The significant levels of terms and pathways were corrected by P -value with a rigorous threshold ( P -value < 0.05) by Bonferroni [ 98 ].…”

Selection and Comparative Gene Expression of Midgut-Specific Targets for Drosophila suzukii

“…The availability of various insect genomes and RNA sequences facilitates a genome-based approach to identifying biological targets for insect control. Since the genome of D. suzukii was published [ 7 ], a few case studies analyzing the functional transcriptome of its antennae were reported [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. A comprehensive genome study was recently achieved by the long-read sequencing [ 11 ].…”

Comparative transcriptome and proteome reveal the unique genes and proteins of female parasitic wasps, Lysiphlebia japonica Ashmead

“…12 Generally, phenotypic differences between males and females are caused by a series of differentially expressed genes, thus, identification of differentially expressed genes in sexes is crucial for insect behavior and physiological analysis. 13 For parasitoid wasps, it is essential to identify the sex-differences because only female wasps are capable of parasitism, however, there are currently few reports of the differences between the female and male parasitoid wasps on the molecular mechanism.…”