De novo transcriptome analysis profiles gene expression in Vanessa cardui wing patterns

Butterfly wing patterns are an important model for studying the genetic basis of morphological evolution. Here we used RNA-seq expression profiling in the butterfly Vanessa cardui to characterize the transcriptional basis of wing pigmentation. This approach identified numerous candidate genes including known and suspected components of the insect melanin and ommochrome biosynthetic pathways. mRNA profiling of hind wings from 5 developmental stages and Red/Black color regions in melanin stages of the painted lady butterfly (V. cardui), generated by deep sequencing with two replicates, using Illumina HiSeq 2500 for 150 bp paired end sequencing.

蝴蝶翅纹图案是研究形态演化遗传基础的经典模型系统。本研究以赤蛱蝶（Vanessa cardui）为实验材料，通过RNA测序（RNA-seq）表达谱分析，解析了翅色素沉着过程的转录调控基础。该分析策略鉴定得到大量候选基因，涵盖了昆虫黑色素（melanin）与眼黄素（ommochrome）生物合成通路中已证实及潜在的功能组分。本数据集针对赤蛱蝶（V. cardui）黑色素形成阶段的红色、黑色色斑区域，以及5个发育时期的后翅样本开展mRNA表达谱分析；测序采用Illumina HiSeq 2500平台进行150 bp双端测序，并设置两次生物学重复。