Genome-wide miRNA and protein coding expression of Danaus plexippus fed on three different hosts.

Second instar larvae of the monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus, from a nonmigratory population in Irapuato, Mexico, were reared for twenty-four hours on three species of milkweed hosts: Asclepias curassavica, A. linaria, and Gomphocarpus physocarpus. The greatest differences in coding gene expression occurred in genes controlling growth and detoxification and were most extreme in comparisons between G. physocarpus and the two Asclepias. MicroRNAs are predicted to be involved as regulators of many of these processes, in particular miR-278 could be an important regulator of growth through Hippo signaling. Overall design: 9 poly(A) and 9 sRNA libraries were prepared from Danaus pleixppus second instar larvae after feeding for 24 hours on three different hosts to identify genes potentially involved in host specificity.

本实验采用采自墨西哥伊拉普阿托非迁徙种群的君主斑蝶（Danaus plexippus）二龄幼虫，将其分别置于三种马利筋寄主植物（Asclepias curassavica、A. linaria及Gomphocarpus physocarpus）上饲养24小时。该样本中编码基因的表达差异主要集中于调控生长与解毒过程的基因，且该类差异在G. physocarpus与两种马利筋属物种的对比组中最为突出。微小RNA（microRNAs）被预测可作为诸多上述过程的调控因子，其中miR-278或可通过Hippo信号通路成为生长调控的关键因子。实验整体设计：将君主斑蝶二龄幼虫在三种不同寄主植物上取食24小时后，分别构建9个poly(A)文库与9个小RNA（sRNA）文库，以筛选潜在参与寄主特异性调控的相关基因。