The Colorado potato beetle gene expression atlas

The Colorado potato beetle (CPB) is a major pest of potato crops that has evolved resistance to more than 50 pesticides. For decades, CPB has been a model species for research on insecticide resistance, insect physiology, diapause, reproduction and evolution. Yet, the research progress in CPB is constrained by the lack of comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic information. Here, building on a recently established chromosome-level genome assembly, we built a gene expression atlas of the CPB using the transcriptomes of 61 samples representing major organs and developmental stages. By using both short and long reads, we improved the genome annotation and identified 6,623 more genes that were missed in previous annotations. We then established a web portal allowing the search and visualization of the gene expression atlas for the research community. The CPB atlas provides useful tools and comprehensive gene expression data, which will accelerate future research in both pest control and insect biology fields. We sequenced the transcriptomes of 12 tissues in adults (five from female, seven from male), five tissues in last instar larvae, as well as the entire body of each larval stage, and eggs.