title: Sequencing, de novo assembly and annotation of a pink bollworm larval midgut transcriptome.
abstract: The pink bollworm Pectinophora gossypiella (Saunders) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the world's most important pests of cotton. Insecticide sprays and transgenic cotton producing toxins of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are currently used to manage this pest. Bt toxins kill susceptible insects by specifically binding to and destroying midgut cells, but they are not toxic to most other organisms. Pink bollworm is useful as a model for understanding insect responses to Bt toxins, yet advances in understanding at the molecular level have been limited because basic genomic information is lacking for this cosmopolitan pest. Here, we have sequenced, de novo assembled and annotated a comprehensive larval midgut transcriptome from a susceptible strain of pink bollworm.
  
  
  
  A de novo transcriptome assembly for the midgut of P. gossypiella was generated containing 46,458 transcripts (average length of 770 bp) derived from 39,874 unigenes. The size of the transcriptome is similar to published midgut transcriptomes of other Lepidoptera and includes up to 91 % annotated contigs. The dataset is publicly available in NCBI and GigaDB as a resource for researchers.
  
  
  
  Foundational knowledge of protein-coding genes from the pink bollworm midgut is critical for understanding how this important insect pest functions. The transcriptome data presented here represent the first large-scale molecular resource for this species, and may be used for deciphering relevant midgut proteins critical for xenobiotic detoxification, nutrient digestion and allocation, as well as for the discovery of protein receptors important for Bt intoxication.
authors.affiliation: Plant Physiology and Genetics Research Unit, US Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Maricopa, AZ, 85138, USA.
authors.forename: Erica E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Tassone
authors.affiliation: DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, 50131, USA.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zastrow-Hayes
authors.affiliation: DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, 50131, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mathis
authors.affiliation: DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, 50131, USA.
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: DuPont Pioneer, Johnston, IA, 50131, USA.
authors.forename: Gusui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: DuPont Crop Protection, Stine-Haskell Research Center, Newark, DE, 19711, USA.
authors.forename: J Lindsey
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Flexner
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Carrière
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Tabashnik
authors.affiliation: Pest Management and Biocontrol Research Unit, US Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Maricopa, AZ, 85138, USA. jeff.fabrick@ars.usda.gov.
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Fabrick
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020451:Contig Mapping; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D007422:Intestines / Q000737:chemistry; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D009036:Moths / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods*; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D004731:Endotoxins
keywords: Bacillus thuringiensis; Midgut; Pectinophora gossypiella; Pink bollworm; RNA-Seq; Transcriptome