Genome and sex-biased transcriptomic response to temperature change of common yellow butterfly Eurema hecabe (Family Pieridae)

The Lepidoptera, including butterflies and moths, is one of the most widespread insect orders in the world. They play important roles in the environment as pollinators and agricultural pests. The common yellow butterfly <em>Eurema hecabe</em> (Family Pieridae) is a dominant species found in Hong Kong and Asia, and a high-quality genome is established in this study. The genome assembly size is 296.5 Mb with high sequence continuity (scaffold N50 = 9.3Mb) and BUSCO completeness (93.0%). Messenger RNA and small RNA transcriptomes were obtained from eight developmental stages (egg, 1st to 5th instars, pupa, adult), which allowed us to annotate a total of 20,164 protein-coding genes in the genome. Comparison to other pierid butterfly genomes revealed the reorganisation of Hox and NK homeobox genes in their last common ancestor. Adult butterflies of different sexes were cultured at three temperatures, and mRNA and microRNA transcriptomes obtained separately from head and body revealed sex-specific/biased expression, including neuropeptide and sesquiterpenoid biosynthetic pathway genes. This study established a new model to understand different environmental stresses for lepidopterans in Asia, and demonstrated the differential response of sexes under climate change.