Transcriptome Analysis of Green Peach Aphid (Myzus persicae): Insight into Developmental Regulation and Inter-Species Divergence.
Green peach aphid (Myzus persicae) and pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) are two phylogenetically closely related agricultural pests. While pea aphid is restricted to Fabaceae, green peach aphid feeds on hundreds of plant species from more than 40 families. Transcriptome comparison could shed light on the genetic factors underlying the difference in host range between the two species. Furthermore, a large scale study contrasting gene expression between immature nymphs and fully developed adult aphids would fill a previous knowledge gap. Here, we obtained transcriptomic sequences of green peach aphid nymphs and adults, respectively, using Illumina sequencing technology. A total of 2244 genes were found to be differentially expressed between the two developmental stages, many of which were associated with detoxification, hormone production, cuticle formation, metabolism, food digestion, and absorption. When searched against publically available pea aphid mRNA sequences, 13,752 unigenes were found to have no homologous counterparts. Interestingly, many of these unigenes that could be annotated in other databases were involved in the "xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism" pathway, suggesting the two aphids differ in their adaptation to secondary metabolites of host plants. Conversely, 3989 orthologous gene pairs between the two species were subjected to calculations of synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions, and 148 of the genes potentially evolved in response to positive selection. Some of these genes were predicted to be associated with insect-plant interactions. Our study has revealed certain molecular events related to aphid development, and provided some insight into biological variations in two aphid species, possibly as a result of host plant adaptation.
Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural SciencesNanjing, China; Department of Entomology, Texas A&M UniversityCollege Station, TX, USA.
Rui
R
Ji
Ministry of Agriculture Key Laboratory of Agricultural Entomology, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China.
Yujun
Y
Wang
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
Yanbin
Y
Cheng
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
Meiping
M
Zhang
Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
Hong-Bin
HB
Zhang
Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences Beijing, China.
Li
L
Zhu
Institute of Plant Protection, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences Nanjing, China.
Jichao
J
Fang
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
Keyan
K
Zhu-Salzman
Acyrthosiphon pisum; Myzus persicae; developmental regulation; host plant adaptation; nymph and adult; synonymous and nonsynonymous substitutions; transcriptome