Stage- and sex-specific transcriptome analyses reveal distinctive sensory gene expression patterns in a butterfly

7Citations
Citations of this article
24Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Background: Animal behavior is largely driven by the information that animals are able to extract and process from their environment. However, the function and organization of sensory systems often change throughout ontogeny, particularly in animals that undergo indirect development. As an initial step toward investigating these ontogenetic changes at the molecular level, we characterized the sensory gene repertoire and examined the expression profiles of genes linked to vision and chemosensation in two life stages of an insect that goes through metamorphosis, the butterfly Bicyclus anynana. Results: Using RNA-seq, we compared gene expression in the heads of late fifth instar larvae and newly eclosed adults that were reared under identical conditions. Over 50 % of all expressed genes were differentially expressed between the two developmental stages, with 4,036 genes upregulated in larval heads and 4,348 genes upregulated in adult heads. In larvae, upregulated vision-related genes were biased toward those involved with eye development, while phototransduction genes dominated the vision genes that were upregulated in adults. Moreover, the majority of the chemosensory genes we identified in the B. anynana genome were differentially expressed between larvae and adults, several of which share homology with genes linked to pheromone detection, host plant recognition, and foraging in other species of Lepidoptera. Conclusions: These results revealed promising candidates for furthering our understanding of sensory processing and behavior in the disparate developmental stages of butterflies and other animals that undergo metamorphosis.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Ernst, D. A., & Westerman, E. L. (2021). Stage- and sex-specific transcriptome analyses reveal distinctive sensory gene expression patterns in a butterfly. BMC Genomics, 22(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021-07819-4

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free