A genes eye view of ontogeny: De novo assembly and profiling of the Gryllus rubens transcriptome

Crickets (Orthoptera:Gryllidae) are widely used model organisms for developmental, evolutionary, neurobiological, and behavioral research. Here we developed a de novo transcriptome from pooled RNA-seq Illumina data spanning 7 stages in the life cycle of Gryllus rubens. Approximately 705 Mbp of data was assembled and filtered to form 27,312 transcripts. We were able to annotate 52% of our transcripts using BLAST and assign at least one gene ontology term to 41%. Pooled samples from three different ontogenetic stages were used for transcriptomic profiling of the annotated transcriptome revealing patterns of differential gene expression that highlight processes in the different life stages. Embryonic and early instar development was enriched for ecdysteriod metabolism, cytochrome P450s, and glutathione production. Late instar development was enriched for regulation of gene expression and many of the genes highly expressed during this stage were involved in conserved developmental signali...