Background
Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are molecular chaperones that are involved in many normal cellular processes and various kinds of environmental stress. There is still no report regarding the diversity and phylogenetics research of HSP superfamily of genes at whole genome level in insects, and the HSP gene association with pyrethroid resistance is also not well known. The present study investigated the diversity, classification, scaffold location, characteristics, and phylogenetics of the superfamily of genes in
Anopheles sinensis
genome, and the HSP genes associated with pyrethroid resistance.
Methods
The present study identified the HSP genes in the
An. sinensis
genome, analysed their characteristics, and deduced phylogenetic relationships of all HSPs in
An. sinensis
,
Anopheles gambiae
,
Culex quinquefasciatus
and
Aedes aegypti
by bioinformatic methods. Importantly, the present study screened the HSPs associated with pyrethroid resistance using three field pyrethroid-resistant populations with RNA-seq and RT-qPCR, and looked over the HSP gene expression pattern for the first time in
An. sinensis
on the time-scale post insecticide treatment with RT-qPCR.
Results
There are 72 HSP genes in
An. sinensis
genome, and they are classified into five families and 11 subfamilies based on their molecular weight, homology and phylogenetics. Both RNA-seq and qPCR analysis revealed that the expression of
AsHSP90AB
,
AsHSP70
-
2
and
AsHSP21.7
are significantly upregulated in at least one field pyrethroid-resistant population. Eleven genes are significantly upregulated in different period after pyrethroid exposure. The HSP90, sHSP and HSP70 families are proposed to be involved in pyrethroid stress response based in expression analyses of three field pyrethroid-resistant populations, and expression pattern on the time scale post insecticide treatment. The
AsHSP90AB
gene is proposed to be the essential HSP gene for pyrethroid stress response in
An. sinensis
.
Conclusions
This study provides the information frame for HSP superfamily of genes, and lays an important basis for the better understanding and further research of HSP function in insect adaptability to diverse environments.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s12936-019-2770-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.