Expression patterns of cysteine peptidase genes across the Tribolium castaneum life cycle provide clues to biological function

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is a major agricultural pest responsible for considerable loss of stored grain and cereal products worldwide. T. castaneum larvae have a highly compartmentalized gut, with cysteine peptidases mostly in the acidic anterior part of the midgut that are critica...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) CA), 2016-01, Vol.4, p.e1581-e1581, Article e1581
Main Authors: Perkin, Lindsey, Elpidina, Elena N, Oppert, Brenda
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural Science
Beetles
Consortia
Cysteine
Cysteine peptidase
Cystine
Developmental stages
Drosophila melanogaster
Enzymes
Feeding
Food processing
Gene expression
Gene expression across life stages
Genes
Genomes
Genomics
Insects
Life cycles
Medical research
Midgut
Peptidase
Pests
Phylogeny
Proteases
Proteins
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA sequencing
Stored products
Studies
Tenebrionid digestion
Transcriptome
Tribolium castaneum
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, is a major agricultural pest responsible for considerable loss of stored grain and cereal products worldwide. T. castaneum larvae have a highly compartmentalized gut, with cysteine peptidases mostly in the acidic anterior part of the midgut that are critical to the early stages of food digestion. In previous studies, we described 26 putative cysteine peptidase genes in T. castaneum (types B, L, O, F, and K) located mostly on chromosomes 3, 7, 8, and 10. In the present study, we hypothesized that specific cysteine peptidase genes could be associated with digestive functions for food processing based on comparison of gene expression profiles in different developmental stages, feeding and non-feeding. RNA-Seq was used to determine the relative expression of cysteine peptidase genes among four major developmental stages (egg, larvae, pupae, and adult) of T. castaneum. We also compared cysteine peptidase genes in T. castaneum to those in other model insects and coleopteran pests. By combining transcriptome expression, phylogenetic comparisons, response to dietary inhibitors, and other existing data, we identified key cysteine peptidases that T. castaneum larvae and adults use for food digestion, and thus new potential targets for biologically-based control products.
ISSN:2167-8359
2167-8359
DOI:10.7717/peerj.1581