Sex-dependent responses to temperature in the common yellow butterfly Eurema hecabe

The Lepidoptera, including butterflies and moths, is one of the most widespread insect orders in the world, playing important roles in the environment as pollinators and agricultural pests. Different sexes of the same species exhibit biological and physiological differences in addition to their sex organs, however, if and how these differences relate to climate change are poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the common yellow butterfly Eurema hecabe (Family Pieridae), a species that is widely distributed in Asia, Africa, and Australia. In addition to the establishment of high-quality genomic resources and transcriptomes from eight developmental stages, we subjected adult butterflies of different sexes to varying temperature to examine gene expression differences. Both mRNA and microRNA transcriptomes were obtained separately from head and body, and sex-specific responses were clearly identified, including differential expression of sesquiterpenoid biosynthetic pathway genes, neuropeptides, and a lepidopteran microRNA cluster. This study lays the foundation for further understanding of differential responses to environmental stress in a widespread lepidopteran model, and demonstrates the potential complexity of sex-specific responses of lepidopterans to climate change.