Identification of Immunity-Related Genes in the Larvae ofProtaetia brevitarsis seulensis(Coleoptera: Cetoniidae) by a Next-Generation Sequencing-Based Transcriptome Analysis

Abstract

To identify immune-related genes in the larvae of white-spotted flower chafers, next-generation sequencing was conducted with an Illumina HiSeq2000, resulting in 100 million cDNA reads with sequence information from over 10 billion base pairs (bp) and >50× transcriptome coverage. A subset of 77,336 contigs was created, and ∼35,532 sequences matched entries against the NCBI nonredundant database (cutoff, e < 10−5). Statistical analysis was performed on the 35,532 contigs. For profiling of the immune response, samples were analyzed by aligning 42 base sequence tags to the de novo reference assembly, comparing levels in immunized larvae to control levels of expression. Of the differentially expressed genes, 3,440 transcripts were upregulated and 3,590 transcripts were downregulated. Many of these genes were confirmed as immune-related genes such as pattern recognition proteins, immune-related signal transduction proteins, antimicrobial peptides, and cellular response proteins, by comparison to published data.

Identification and characterization of novel cecropins from the Oxysternon conspicillatum neotropic dung beetle

“…In addition, different strategies of in silico analysis are used to predict peptides of therapeutic interest and enrich the search for antimicrobial peptides based on physicochemical properties and nucleotide sequence similarity [ 52 – 54 ]. Nevertheless, the number of host defense peptides in the cecropin family is low, finding mostly defensins and coleoptericins [ 55 ]. The new group of cecropins, described in this work, were found by using a gene ontology enrichment strategy based on the blast of the signal peptide of the initial cecropin found by GO against a constructed O .…”

A microRNA‐1 gene, tci‐miR‐1‐3p, is involved in cyflumetofen resistance by targeting a glutathione S‐transferase gene, TCGSTM4, in Tetranychus cinnabarinus

“…In addition, miR-1 was found to be involved in immune processes in Drosophila melanogaster (Fullaondo & Lee, 2012), and miR-1 was differentially expressed during pathogen infection in Aedes aegypti (Shrinet et al, 2014). Meanwhile, many detoxification enzyme genes have been reported to play an important role in the immune processes of insects (Altincicek et al, 2012;Bang et al, 2015). The differential expressions of many immune-associated detoxification enzyme genes have been reported to be involved in insecticide resistance in many insect species (Hemingway & Karunaratne, 1998;Coleman et al, 2002).…”

Quality characteristics and protein digestibility of Protaetia brevitarsis larvae

“…Bioactive peptides exhibit antioxidant, antihypertensive, and mineral-binding activities [ 32 ] and several studies have confirmed the presence of low molecular weight bioactive peptides in edible insects including P. brevitarsis larvae [ 32 – 35 ]. Previous studies have reported the presence of innate proteases in insect bodies [ 36 , 37 ]. In live insects, innate proteases participate in the defense system, while Bang et al [ 36 ] and Chang et al [ 37 ] reported that serine proteases are present in the larvae and maggot of P. brevitarsis .…”

“…Previous studies have reported the presence of innate proteases in insect bodies [36,37]. In live insects, innate proteases participate in the defense system, while Bang et al [36] and Chang et al [37] reported that serine proteases are present in the larvae and maggot of P. brevitarsis. Autolysis can be caused by the degradation of skin and muscle proteins by endogenous proteases [18].…”