De novo transcriptome assembly of the Malpighian tubules and fat body of Zophobas morio larvae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

The Malpighian tubules in insects play an essential role in osmoregulation, performing transport of ions, and fluids during the formation of primary urine, whereas fat body is usually associated with the intermediary metabolism. A luciferase-like enzyme that displays weak luminescence activity in the presence of firefly D-luciferin was cloned from the tubules of Z. morio larvae. Therefore, to better understand the molecular physiology of tubules and fat body in Coleoptera and analyse the AMP-CoA ligases enzymes, we performed a comparative transcriptional analysis of these tissues from Z. morio. Although these tissues perform distinct physiological functions in insects they are also involved in similar pathways, such as nitrogen metabolism to degradation/excretion, eye pigments biosynthesis, immunity, and detoxification. Our results corroborate to the physiological versatility of tubules and fat body in a Coleopteran larvae. Futhermore our analysis also indicates the presence of AMP-CoA ligases isoforms that could be related to important unknown roles in tubules and fat body physiology, such as degradation/excretion of carboxilic acids