Next Generation Sequencing Based Transcriptome Analysis of Septic-Injury Responsive Genes in the Beetle Tribolium castaneum

Beetles (Coleoptera) are the most diverse animal group on earth and interact with numerous symbiotic or pathogenic microbes in their environments. The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum is a genetically tractable model beetle species and its whole genome sequence has recently been determined. To advance our understanding of the molecular basis of beetle immunity here we analyzed the whole transcriptome of T. castaneum by high-throughput next generation sequencing technology. Here, we demonstrate that the Illumina/Solexa sequencing approach of cDNA samples from T. castaneum including over 9.7 million reads with 72 base pairs (bp) length (approximately 700 million bp sequence information with about 30× transcriptome coverage) confirms the expression of most predicted genes and enabled subsequent qualitative and quantitative transcriptome analysis. This approach recapitulates our recent quantitative real-time PCR studies of immune-challenged and naïve T. castaneum beetles, validating our approach. Furthermore, this sequencing analysis resulted in the identification of 73 differentially expressed genes upon immune-challenge with statistical significance by comparing expression data to calculated values derived by fitting to generalized linear models. We identified up regulation of diverse immune-related genes (e.g. Toll receptor, serine proteinases, DOPA decarboxylase and thaumatin) and of numerous genes encoding proteins with yet unknown functions. Of note, septic-injury resulted also in the elevated expression of genes encoding heat-shock proteins or cytochrome P450s supporting the view that there is crosstalk between immune and stress responses in T. castaneum. The present study provides a first comprehensive overview of septic-injury responsive genes in T. castaneum beetles. Identified genes advance our understanding of T. castaneum specific gene expression alteration upon immune-challenge in particular and may help to understand beetle immunity in general.