Transcriptome Pyrosequencing of the Parasitoid Wasp Cotesia vestalis: Genes Involved in the Antennal Odorant-Sensory System

Abstract

Cotesia vestalis is an endoparasitic wasp that attacks larvae of the diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), a herbivore of cruciferous plants. Females of C. vestalis use herbivore-induced plant odorants released from plants infested by P. xylostella as a host-searching cue. Transcriptome pyrosequencing was used to identify genes in the antennae of C. vestalis adult females coding for odorant receptors (ORs) and odorant binding proteins (OBPs) involved in insect olfactory perception. Quantitative gene expression analyses showed that a few OR and OBP genes were expressed exclusively in the antenna of C. vestalis adult females whereas most other classes of genes were expressed in the antennae of both males and females, indicating their diversity in importance for the olfactory sensory system. Together, transcriptome profiling of C. vestalis genes involved in the antennal odorant-sensory system helps in detecting genes involved in host- and food-search behaviors through infochemically-mediated interactions.

Analysis of antennal transcriptome and odorant binding protein expression profiles of the recently identified parasitoid wasp, Sclerodermus sp.

“…also shared similarity with proteins from other hymenopterans, including Camponotus floridana, Apis florea, Bombus terrestri, Acromyrmex echinatior, Apis mellifera, Solenopsis invicta, and Nasonia vitripennis. Similar trends in protein similarity were reported for the transcriptome analyses of the parasitoid wasps, Cotesia vestalis and Spalangia endius (Nishimura et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2014).…”

“…2, the distribution of unigenes annotated as molecular function showed that the genes expressed in the antennae were primarily related to binding activity (6545 unigenes, 46.19%), whereas 1236 (8.72%) of the unigenes were involved in transporter activity. Similar trends in GO annotation were also observed in the transcriptomic analyses of C. vestalis and N. vitripennis (Nishimura et al, 2012;Pannebakker et al, 2013).…”

“…The expression pattern of OBP5 was similar to that reported for its ortholog, SguaOBP1, which exhibits antenna-specific expression in female S. guani (Li et al, 2011). The OBP5, OBP6, OBP7, and OBP9 proteins might play roles in the perception of certain HIPVs for locating hostinsect species (Nishimura et al, 2012). The OBP9 might have a main function in host-searching behavior of Sclerodermus sp.…”

First Transcriptome and Digital Gene Expression Analysis in Neuroptera with an Emphasis on Chemoreception Genes in Chrysopa pallens (Rambur)

“…To better understand the sophisticated olfactory system of C. pallens , 66 putative chemoreception genes(including OBPs , CSPs , ORs , IRs , and SNMPs ) were identified from our transcriptome. This number is more than the numbers found in Cnaphalocrosis medinalis (22) [41] and Cotesia vestalis (28) [42], but less than that of Spodoptera littoralis (82) [30], Manduca sexta (94) [43] and Helicoverpa armigera (99) [34].…”

Value and impacts of collecting vertebrate voucher specimens, with guidelines for ethical collection

“…These genetic samples are collected from multiple tissue types (e.g., muscle, heart, liver), and preserved cryogenically or in a fixative that slows degradation (e.g., ethanol, RNALater). Increasingly over the last decade, these tissue samples have been accessed for uses other than just DNA, including messenger RNA (the expressed form of DNA in cells), proteins, parasites, venoms, toxins and odorant compounds (e.g., Perkins et al, 1998;Nishimura et al, 2012).…”