De novo transcriptomic analysis of the alimentary tract of the tephritid gall fly, Procecidochares utilis

The tephritid gall fly, Procecidochares utilis, is an important obligate parasitic insect of the malignant weed Eupatorium adenophorum which biosynthesizes toxic secondary metabolites. Insect alimentary tracts secrete several enzymes that are used for detoxification, including cytochrome P450s, glutathione S-transferases, and carboxylesterases. To explore the adaptation of P. utilis to its toxic host plant, E. adenophorum at molecular level, we sequenced the transcriptome of the alimentary tract of P. utilis using Illumina sequencing. Sequencing and de novo assembly yielded 62,443 high-quality contigs with an average length of 604 bp that were further assembled into 45,985 unigenes with an average length of 674 bp and an N50 of 983 bp. Among the unigenes, 30,430 (66.17%) were annotated by alignment against the NCBI non-redundant protein (Nr) database, while 16,700 (36.32%), 16,267 (35.37%), and 11,530 (25.07%) were assigned functions using the Clusters of Orthologous Groups (COG), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene Ontology (GO) databases, respectively. Using the comprehensive transcriptome data set, we manually identified several important gene families likely to be involved in the detoxification of toxic compounds including 21 unigenes within the glutathione S-transferase (GST) family, 22 unigenes within the cytochrome P450 (P450) family, and 16 unigenes within the carboxylesterase (CarE) family. Quantitative PCR was used to verify eight, six, and two genes of GSTs, P450s, and CarEs, respectively, in different P. utilis tissues and at different developmental stages. The detoxification enzyme genes were mainly expressed in the foregut and midgut. Moreover, the unigenes were higher expressed in the larvae, pupae, and 3-day adults, while they were expressed at lower levels in eggs. These transcriptomic data provide a valuable molecular resource for better understanding the function of the P. utilis alimentary canal. These identified genes could be pinpoints to address the molecular mechanisms of P. utilis interacting with toxic plant host.