Sexy fingers: Pheromones in the glands of male dendrobatid frogs

Our study investigates the role of the swollen fingers of two dendrobatid species, Leucostethus brachistriatus, and Epipedobates anthonyi, in pheromone production using whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq). We examined differential gene expression in the swollen versus non-swollen fingers and toes. The overwhelming pattern of gene expression in both species was strong upregulation of sodefrin precursor-like factors (SPFs) in swollen fingers, a well-known pheromone system in salamanders. As part of the results, we include a fasta-file with the RNA-seq assemblies from each species, as well as their annotation and Differential expression (DE) analyses. Likewise, we include the alignment of some of the most highly expressed sodefrin precursor-like-factor (SPF) sequences, We collected adult males from Leucostethus brachistriatus and Epipedobates anthonyi. Three males were used for the RNA sequencing analysis. We sampled both fingers IV (as a target tissue) of three males from each species and as a control tissue, we sampled both fingers III of L. brachistriatus and both toes III of E. anthonyi. We realized the RNA extraction, and library preparation and sequencing were done by Genewiz in Leipzig, Germany.A total of 12 samples were sequenced for this study in a paired-sample design (i.e., paired control–swollen samples for each of three males per species).
AssemblyOur general approach was to (1) assemble on a per-individual basis using both tissue samples at once (swollen and control), (2) perform each assembly at multiple kmer sizes, and (3) merge the multiple assemblies into a single non-redundant assembly for each species. Multi-kmer assembly and subsequent merging with the tr2aacds pipeline (Gilbert, 2013) has been found to yield assemblies with great..., , # Sexy fingers: pheromones in the glands of male dendrobatid frogs

Diana Abondano Almeida1,a, Evan Twomey1, Fernando Vargas-Salinas2, Carmen Meyer1, Lisa M. Schulte1

Affiliations

1 Department of Wildlife-/Zoo-Animal-Biology and Systematics, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2 Grupo de Investigación en Evolución, Ecología y Conservación (EECO), Programa de
Biología, Universidad del Quindío, Armenia, Colombia

a Correspondence: e-mail, [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])
ORCID: 0000-0002-3336-3487

We investigated the role of the swollen fingers of two dendrobatid species, *Leucostethus brachistriatus*, and *Epipedobates anthonyi*, in pheromone production using whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq). We examined differential gene expression in the swollen versus non-swollen fingers and toes with a focus on searching for known amphibian pheromones.

The RNA-seq assemblies per species are FASTA files:

Our gen...

# 性感指部：雄性箭毒蛙腺体中的信息素
戴安娜·阿邦达诺·阿尔梅达¹,a, 埃文·特沃米¹, 费尔南多·巴尔加斯-萨利纳斯², 卡门·迈尔¹, 丽莎·M·舒尔特¹

## 作者单位
1. 德国法兰克福歌德大学生物科学学院 野生动物与动物园动物生物学及系统学系
2. 哥伦比亚金迪奥大学生物学项目 进化、生态与保护研究小组（EECO）

通讯作者：电子邮箱 <[e-mail]>，ORCID：0000-0002-3336-3487

本研究依托全转录组测序（RNAseq）技术，探究两种箭毒蛙科物种——短纹白喉箭毒蛙（*Leucostethus brachistriatus*）与安东尼箭毒蛙（*Epipedobates anthonyi*）的肿胀指部在信息素生成过程中的作用。我们分析了肿胀指/趾与非肿胀指/趾组织间的差异基因表达情况。两种物种的基因表达整体模式高度一致：肿胀指部中的索德弗里恩前体样因子（sodefrin precursor-like factors, SPFs）呈现显著上调，而这类因子是蝾螈中已被广泛认知的信息素系统。

本研究的结果数据集包含各物种的RNAseq组装结果FASTA文件、相关注释文件以及差异表达（differential expression, DE）分析结果。此外，我们还提供了部分高表达索德弗里恩前体样因子（SPFs）序列的比对文件。

我们采集了短纹白喉箭毒蛙与安东尼箭毒蛙的成年雄性个体，每个物种各选取3只雄性个体用于RNA测序分析。对于每只雄性个体，我们采集其第IV指作为目标肿胀组织；作为对照组织，分别采集短纹白喉箭毒蛙的第III指，以及安东尼箭毒蛙的第III趾。RNA提取、文库构建及测序工作均由德国莱比锡的Genewiz公司完成。本研究采用配对样本设计，共对12个样本进行测序，即每个物种的3只雄性个体各对应一对对照-肿胀样本。

## 组装流程
本研究的整体组装策略如下：(1) 以单个个体的所有组织样本（肿胀组织与对照组织）为材料进行组装；(2) 采用多种k聚体（kmer）长度开展组装；(3) 将多个组装结果合并为单个物种的非冗余组装序列。已有研究表明，结合多kmer组装与tr2aacds分析流程（Gilbert, 2013）进行后续合并，可获得质量优异的组装结果……

本研究再次依托全转录组测序（RNAseq）技术，探究两种箭毒蛙科物种——短纹白喉箭毒蛙（*Leucostethus brachistriatus*）与安东尼箭毒蛙（*Epipedobates anthonyi*）的肿胀指部在信息素生成过程中的作用。我们分析了肿胀指/趾与非肿胀指/趾组织间的差异基因表达情况，重点搜寻已知的两栖类信息素。

各物种的RNAseq组装结果均以FASTA文件形式提供：我们的基因……