Thota Kanishka Rao, Amity University Kolkata
Thrips are small, polyphagous, and cosmopolitan insects that comprise the order Thysanoptera. Thysanoptera lies within the Paraneoptera, also commonly called the “hemipteroid assemblage” which also includes the orders Hemiptera, Psocoptera, and Phthiraptera.
Among the over 7000 reported thrips species classified into nine families with a further five identified from fossil species, the plant-feeders and crop pests are the foremost well-characterised members of the order thanks to their agricultural importance.
The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), is a globally invasive pest and plant virus vector on a wide array of food, fibre, and decorative crops, capable of feeding on hundreds of diverse plant species, tissue types, fungi, and other arthropods. The underlying genetic mechanisms of the processes governing thrips pest and vector biology, feeding behaviours, ecology, and insecticide resistance are largely unknown. to deal with this gap, we present the F. occidentalis draft genome assembly and official gene set.
Researchers reported on the first-ever genomic sequence for any member of the insect order Thysanoptera. Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Ortholog (BUSCO) assessments of the genome assembly (size = 415.8 Mb, scaffold N50 = 948.9 kb) revealed a comparatively complete and well-annotated assembly compared to other insect genomes. The genome is unusually GC-rich (50%) compared to other insect genomes up to now. The official gene set (OGS v1.0) contains 16,859 genes, of which ~ 10% were manually verified and corrected by our consortium. We focused on manual annotation, phylogenetic, and expression evidence analyses for gene sets centred on primary themes within the life histories and activities of plant-colonising insects. Highlights include the following:
- divergent clades and huge expansions in genes related to environmental sensing (chemosensory receptors) and detoxification (CYP4, CYP6, and CCE enzymes) of drugs encountered in agricultural environments;
- a comprehensive set of duct gland genes supported by enriched expression;
- the apparent absence of members of the IMD innate immune defence pathway; and
- developmental- and sex-specific expression analyses of genes related to progression from larvae to adulthood through neometaboly, a definite sort of maturation differing from either incomplete or complete metamorphosis within the Insecta.
Analysis of the genomic resources presented here enables a more complete analysis of insect evolution and biology, providing a missing taxon for contemporary insect genomics-based analyses, offering insights into the polyphagous behaviour of this insect pest that finds, colonises, and survives on a widely diverse array of plants.
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Source: Rotenberg, D., Baumann, A.A., Ben-Mahmoud, S. et al. Genome-enabled insights into the biology of thrips as crop pests. BMC Biol 18, 142 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-020-00862-9
Great work 👍!!