Supporting data for "De novo construction of an expanded transcriptome assembly for the western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus".

The plant bug, <em>Lygus hesperus</em> Knight, is a polyphagous pest of many economically important crops. Despite its pest status, little is known about the molecular mechanisms responsible for much of Lygus biology. Earlier Lygus transcriptome assemblies were either limited by low read depth or focused on specific conditions. To generate a more comprehensive transcriptome, we supplemented previous datasets with new reads corresponding to specific tissues (heads, antennae, and male reproductive tissues). This transcriptome augments current Lygus molecular resources and provides the foundational knowledge critical for future comparative studies.
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An expanded, Trinity-based de novo transcriptome assembly for L. hesperus was generated using previously published whole body Illumina data supplemented with 293 million bp of new raw sequencing data corresponding to five tissue-specific cDNA libraries and 11 Illumina sequencing runs. The updated transcriptome consists of 22,022 transcripts (average length of 2,075 nt), 62% of which contain complete open reading frames. Significant coverage of the BUSCO (benchmarking universal single-copy orthologs) dataset and robust metrics indicate that the transcriptome is a quality assembly with a high degree of completeness. Initial assessment of assembly utility revealed that the length and abundance of transcripts predicted to regulate insect physiology and chemosensation have improved with the new assembly compared to previous <em>L. hesperus</em> assemblies.