AUTHOR=Chang Yajun , Yang Bin , Zhang Yu , Dong Chenxi , Liu Lei , Zhao Xincheng , Wang Guirong 

TITLE=Identification of sex-biased and neurodevelopment genes via brain transcriptome in Ostrinia furnacalis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2022.953538

DOI=10.3389/fphys.2022.953538

ISSN=1664-042X

ABSTRACT=Insects displayed sex-biased behaviors such as mating and oviposition, which were regulated by insect brains, the central nervous system, which integrating various signals. The neural structure and function between males and females have been identified in the brains, whereas the antenna lobes (AL) showed the most discrepancy. However, the whole repertoire of the genes expressed in the brains and the molecular mechanism of neural signaling and structural development is still unclear. In this study, high-throughput transcriptome analysis of male and female brains was carried on in the Asia corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis, and a total of 39.23Gb data and 34,092 unigenes were obtained. Among them, 276 genes displayed sex-biased expression by DEG analysis, of which 125 genes were highly expressed in the males and 151 genes were highly expressed in the females. Besides, by homology analysis against genes that have been confirmed to be related to brain neurodevelopment, a total of 24 candidate genes were identified in O. furnacalis. In addition, to further screen the core genes that may be important for sex-biased nerve signaling and neurodevelopment, protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks were constructed for the sex-biased genes and neurodevelopment genes. As the results, we identified 10 (Mhc, Mlc1, Mlc2, Prm, Mf, wupA, TpnC25D, fln, l(2)efl and Act5C), 11 (PPO2, GNBP3, Spn77Ba, Ppn, yellow-d2, PGRP-LB, PGRP-SD, PGRP-SC2, Hml, Cg25C and vkg) and 8 (dac, wg, hh, ci, run, Lim1, Rbp9 and Bx) core hub genes that may be related to brain neuraldevelopment from male-biased, female-biased and neurodevelopment gene groups, respectively. Our results provide a basis for further analysis of the central nervous system in agricultural pests.