The transcriptional response to the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae) reveals extended differences between tolerant and susceptible olive (Olea europaea L.) varieties

Comparative profiling of damaged (pool of different stages of fly attack) and control undamaged fruits of cv Ortice and cv Ruveia (Olea europaea L.), characterized by a different tolerance to Bactrocera oleae, generated a comprehensive repertory of transcripts useful to study the genes modulated by Bactrocera oleae attack. To profile the variation in gene expression of olives during B. oleae feeding and to characterize the differences between the two varieties with contrasting susceptibility to olive-fly we used a CombiMatrix CustomArray™ 90K arrays (CombiMatrix Corporation) based on 61,825 olive probes (60,706 non-redundant) out of the 87,720 sequences of the pooled library (454 pyrosequencing results of four cDNA libraries obtained from damaged and undamaged drupes of the ‘Ortice’ and ‘Ruveia’ varieties). For each biological condition, three independent samples (i.e. from different trees) were obtained as pools of three to five independently extracted technical replicates.