Sex-based de novo transcriptome assemblies of the parasitoid wasp Encarsia suzannae, a host of the manipulative heritable symbiont Cardinium hertigii

Abstract

Parasitoid wasps in the genus Encarsia are commonly used as biological pest control agents of whiteflies and armored scale insects in greenhouses or the field. They are also hosts of the bacterial endosymbiont Cardinium hertigii, which can cause reproductive manipulation phenotypes, including parthenogenesis, feminization, and cytoplasmic incompatibility (the last is mainly studied in Encarsia suzannae). Despite their biological and economic importance, there are no published Encarsia genomes and only one public transcriptome. Here, we applied a mapping-and-removal approach to eliminate known contaminants from previously-obtained Illumina sequencing data. We generated de novo transcriptome assemblies for both female and male E. suzannae which contain 45,986 and 54,762 final coding sequences, respectively. Benchmarking Single-Copy Orthologs results indicate both assemblies are highly complete. Preliminary analyses revealed the presence of homologs of sex-determination genes characterized in other insects and putative venom proteins. Our male and female transcriptomes will be valuable tools to better understand the biology of Encarsia and their evolutionary relatives, particularly in studies involving insects of only one sex.

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

“…Similar to results obtained from other parasitoid wasp, there were fewer up‐regulated genes in adult females vs . males of Encarsia suzannae 31 . In the group of up‐regulated genes, acyl‐CoA delta (11) desaturase is one of the most abundant genes that were differentially expressed in our experiment, and is thought to encode proteins involved in lipid transport and fatty acid metabolism.…”

“…Similar to results obtained from other parasitoid wasp, there were fewer up-regulated genes in adult females vs. males of Encarsia suzannae. 31 In the group of up-regulated genes, acyl-CoA delta (11) desaturase is one of the most abundant genes that were differentially expressed in our experiment, and is thought to encode proteins involved in lipid transport and fatty acid metabolism. Similarly, acyl-CoA delta (11) desaturase is up-regulated in ovipositing females of Nasonia vitripennis, suggesting that they may influence the way lipids are mobilized during oviposition.…”