Lygus hesperus Transcriptome or Gene expression
Lygus hesperus is a pest of cotton, alfalfa, fruit and vegetable crops, and potentially of several emerging biofuel and natural product feedstocks in the western US. However, little is known about the underlying molecular genetics, biochemistry, or physiology of L. hesperus, including their ability to survive extreme environmental conditions. We used 454 pyrosequencing of a normalized adult cDNA library and de novo assembly to obtain an adult L. hesperus transcriptome consisting of 1,429,818 transcriptomic reads representing 36,131 transcript isoforms (isotigs) that correspond to 19,742 genes. The L. hesperus transcriptome advances the underlying molecular understanding of this arthropod pest by significantly increasing the number of known genes, and provides the basis for further exploration and understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of abiotic stress responses.