Comparative transcriptome analysis of differentially expressed genes in the ovary and testis and identification of transformer-2 gene of the corn pest, Athetis dissimilis

Abstract Insect sex determination is extremely complex and requires the mutual regulation of multiple genes. By sequencing the testis and ovary transcriptomes, we identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which could provide reference for breeding male sterile lines to control the insect population in the future. A total of 11065 DEGs between the males and females of Athetis dissimilis were identified, of which 6685 genes were up-regulated and 4380 genes were down-regulated in females. By searching all-DEGs against COG, GO, KEGG, KOG, Pfam, Swiss-Prot, eggNOG and nr databases obtained in a total of 6656 annotated DEGs. In the nr search results, we obtained a sex-related transformer-2 gene, named AdisTra-2 . With other species aligned sequence found that Adistr-2 protein had a highly conserved RRM domain. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the Adistra-2 protein was a close relative to of the lepidoptera tra-2 protein. The qRT-PCR of different states expression pattern showed that the Adistra-2 was abundant in egg period. About tissue-specific expression, the Adistra-2 expression was the highest in the ovary. This work provides a theoretical reference for the sex differentiation and genetic manipulation of this insect.