Single-cell and spatial transcriptomic atlas of the Cyrtotrachelus buqueti

BackgroundThe bamboo snout beetle, Cyrtotrachelus buqueti, is a serious pest of bamboo species. It is well known to transform bamboo shoot biomass into nutrients and energy with high specificity and efficacy of bioconversion. However, to date, no studies have evaluated the role of the digestive system of C. buqueti on bamboo degradation at cell type and spatial specific level.ResultsIntestine of C. buqueti were collected and defined as larvae anterior midgut (LAM), larvae posterior midgut (LPM), larvae hindgut (LH) as well as adult hindgut (AH) for single-cell RNA sequencing. A total of 14 cell types were identified and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in seven epithelial cell types, a few of the DEGs (such as EVM0005026) showed significant differential expression across multiple cell types, indicating these epithelial cells might be crucial for bamboo digestion. Moreover, Stereo-seq revealed the spatial heterogeneity in section of the intestine of larvae C. buqueti, and epithelial cell_Snk was the most widely distributed cells.ConclusionOverall, this work highlights the spatial transcriptional landscape of the digestive system of C. buqueti, offering insights into differentiation trajectories, imbalanced gene expression, and cell-type characteristics at both larvae and adult stages, thus enhancing our understanding of the C. buqueti bioconversion of bamboo biomass.