Genome‐wide identification, characterization and evolution of cuticular protein genes in the malaria vector Anopheles sinensis (Diptera: Culicidae)

Abstract

Thirteen cuticular protein (CP) families have been recognized in arthropods. In this study, 250 Anopheles sinensis CP genes were identified and named based on genome and transcriptome sequences. They were classified into 10 families based on motifs and phylogenetic analyses. In 11 other insect species, nine had CP numbers > 150 while Apis mellifera and Tribolium castaneum had CP numbers less than 52. The CPs of eight species occupied > 1.4% of the total genomic gene number, whereas in three species the CPs occupied < 1%. The phylogenies for each CP family in An. sinensis were constructed and discussed. The 250 CPs each had 1-8 exons with 144 CPs (57.6%) having two exons. The intron length ranged from 66-3888 bp with 174 introns (54.0%) being 66-100 bp long. Except for two CPs on two contigs, 248 CPs were mapped onto 28 scaffolds with 136 genes (54.4%) restricted to five scaffolds. A total of 107 CPs were clustered and located at 27 loci. The CPR family had the conserved motif GSYSLVEPDGTVRTV. The RR-1 subfamily had an additional 21 amino acid (aa) motifs with the YVADENGF sequence that is common in insects. The RR-2 subfamily had an additional 50 aa motifs with two additional regions RDGDVVKG and G-x(3)-VV. A comparison with 115 orthologous counterparts of An. gambiae CPs suggested purifying selection for all of these genes. This study provides basic information useful for further studies on biological functions of An. sinensis CPs as well as for comparative genomics of insect CPs.

3,4-Dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde synthase and cuticle formation in insects

“…For example, genome analysis suggested 238 putative cuticular proteins, including 136 CPR cuticular proteins in An. sinensis , which is slightly different from what reported by another group (Liu et al, 2017).…”

“…Twenty eight cuticular proteins in CPR family have been reported in Apis mellifera (Consortium, 2006), 101 CPR cuticular protein genes reported in Drosophila melanogaster (Karouzou et al, 2007), 156 CPR genes identified in Anopheles gambiae (Cornman et al, 2008), 148 cuticular proteins in Bombyx mori (Futahashi et al, 2008), and 158 CPR cuticular protein genes identified and named in An. sinensis (Liu et al, 2017). Total cuticular proteins of A. mellifera, Dr. melanogaster, An.…”

Comparative analyses of simple sequence repeats (SSRs) in 23 mosquito species genomes: Identification, characterization and distribution (Diptera: Culicidae)

“…With the increasing of mosquito omics data, the diversity, characterization and functional analyses of a given group of genes are progressively increasing (He et al ., ; Liu et al ., ; Mei et al ., ; Wang et al ., ; Wu et al ., ; Yan et al ., ). However, the in silico SSR identification and analysis are relatively insufficient, and therefore the SSR features and the association with different species of mosquito genomes are still not well understood.…”

“…albopictus (Chen et al, 2015) have been sequenced and annotated, and more recently 16 Anopheles genomes have been reported (Neafsey et al, 2015). A number of transcriptomes and mitochondrial genomes have also been sequenced and comparatively analyzed (e.g., Chen et al, 2014;Hua et al, 2016;Hao et al, 2017;Fang et al, 2018) With the increasing of mosquito omics data, the diversity, characterization and functional analyses of a given group of genes are progressively increasing (He et al, 2016;Liu et al, 2018;Mei et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2018;Yan et al, 2018). However, the in silico SSR identification and analysis are relatively insufficient, and therefore the SSR features and the association with different species of mosquito genomes are still not well understood.…”

Transcriptome profiling of maternal stress‐induced wing dimorphism in pea aphids

“…MUSCLE alignment of the predicted domain sequences indicated that the protein sequences of the 23 CP genes were highly similar, having 24 identical amino acid residues (Figure d). Protein family analysis based on the CuticleDB indicated that the 23 CP genes all belonged to RR2 subfamily and all presented a sequence motif that was homologous to the RR‐2 motif reported in Anopheles sinensis (Figure e; Liu et al, ).…”