Project description:To develop genetic resources for the improvement of insects as food, we sequenced transcripts from embryos, one-day hatchlings, three nymphal stages, and male and female adults of the house cricket, Acheta domesticus. A draft transcriptome was assembled from more than 138 million sequences combined from all life stages and sexes. The draft transcriptome assembly contained 45,866 contigs, and more than half were similar to sequences at NCBI (e value < e-3). The highest sequence identity was found in sequences from the termites Cryptotermes secundus and Zootermopsis nevadensis. Sequences with identity to Gregarina niphandrodes suggest that these crickets carry the parasite. Among all life stages, there were 5,042 genes with differential expression between life stages (significant at p < 0.05). An enrichment analysis of gene ontology terms from each life stage or sex highlighted genes that were important to biological processes in cricket development. We further characterized genes that may be important in future studies of genetically modified crickets for improved food production, including those involved in RNA interference, and those encoding prolixicin and hexamerins. The data represent an important first step in our efforts to provide genetically improved crickets for human consumption and livestock feed.
Project description:Identification of peptides and proteins of 18 different insect meal samples derived from the species Hermetia illucens (8), Tenebrio molitor (5), Alphitobius diaperinus (3) and Acheta domesticus (2). Proteins were extracted using two different extraction and solubilization methods. Protein digests were analyzed using an ESI-MS/MS maXis Impact UHR-TOF (Bruker) coupled with an UltiMate 3000 HPLC system (Thermo Scientific) using a 1 mm I.D. x 150 mm reverse phase column (Acclaim PepMap 100 C18, Thermo). Mass spectrometry data (.baf files) were converted using compassXport (Bruker DataAnalysis 4.2) and saved as mzXML files. Proteomics data analysis was conducted using the proteoQC package (version 1.18.1) in R (version 3.4.4) running in RStudio (version 1.0.143).