title: Transcriptome analysis of an endoparasitoid wasp Cotesia chilonis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) reveals genes involved in successful parasitism.
abstract: For successful parasitization, parasitiods usually depend on the chemosensory cues for the selection of hosts, as well as a variety of virulence factors introduced into their hosts to overcome host immunity and prevent rejection of progeny development. In bracovirus-carrying wasps, the symbiotic polydnaviruses act in manipulating development and immunity of hosts. The endoparasitoid Cotesia chilonis carrying bracovirus as a key host immunosuppressive factor is a superior endoparasitoid of rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis. So far, genomic information for C. chilonis is not available and transcriptomic data may provide valuable resources for global studying on physiological processes of C. chilonis, including chemosensation and parasitism at molecular level. Here, we performed RNA-seq to characterize the transcriptome of C. chilonis adults. We obtained 27,717,892 reads, assembled into 38,318 unigenes with a mean size of 690 bp. Approximately, 62.1% of the unigenes were annotated using NCBI databases. A large number of chemoreception-related genes encoding proteins including odorant receptors, gustatory receptors, odorant-binding proteins, chemosensory proteins, transient receptor potential ion channels, and sensory neuron membrane proteins were identified in silico. Totally, 72 transcripts possessing high identities with the bracovirus-related genes were identified. We investigated the mRNA expression levels of several transcripts at different developmental stages (including egg, larva, pupae, and adult) by quantitative real-time PCR analysis. The results revealed that some genes had adult-specific expression, indicating their potential significance for mating and parasitism. Overall, these results provide comprehensive insights into transcriptomic data of a polydnavirus-carrying parasitoid of a rice pest.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Key Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology of Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Yixiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Ziwen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: Lingfeng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Shunfan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Gongyin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions / Q000235:genetics; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D018071:Polydnaviridae; D018035:Receptors, Odorant / Q000235:genetics; D013559:Symbiosis / Q000235:genetics; D059467:Transcriptome; D014863:Wasps / Q000235:genetics* / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D018035:Receptors, Odorant; C045648:odorant-binding protein
keywords: bracoviruses; chemoreception; insects; parasitoids; transcriptomics