title: De novo transcriptome of the Hemimetabolous German cockroach (Blattella germanica).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The German cockroach, Blattella germanica, is an important insect pest that transmits various pathogens mechanically and causes severe allergic diseases. This insect has long served as a model system for studies of insect biology, physiology and ecology. However, the lack of genome or transcriptome information heavily hinder our further understanding about the German cockroach in every aspect at a molecular level and on a genome-wide scale. To explore the transcriptome and identify unique sequences of interest, we subjected the B. germanica transcriptome to massively parallel pyrosequencing and generated the first reference transcriptome for B. germanica.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,365,609 raw reads with an average length of 529 bp were generated via pyrosequencing the mixed cDNA library from different life stages of German cockroach including maturing oothecae, nymphs, adult females and males. The raw reads were de novo assembled to 48,800 contigs and 3,961 singletons with high-quality unique sequences. These sequences were annotated and classified functionally in terms of BLAST, GO and KEGG, and the genes putatively coding detoxification enzyme systems, insecticide targets, key components in systematic RNA interference, immunity and chemoreception pathways were identified. A total of 3,601 SSRs (Simple Sequence Repeats) loci were also predicted.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The whole transcriptome pyrosequencing data from this study provides a usable genetic resource for future identification of potential functional genes involved in various biological processes.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Disinfection and Vector Control, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China; State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Disinfection and Vector Control, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Institute of Disinfection and Vector Control, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States of America.
authors.forename: Junwei Jerry
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xinghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Disinfection and Vector Control, Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaopeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003058:Cockroaches / Q000235:genetics*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D034622:RNA Interference; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D012333:RNA, Messenger