Project description:The western corn rootworm (WCR, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte) is an important pest of corn (Zea mays) in the US. Annual crop rotation between corn and soybean (Glycine max) disrupts the corn-dependent WCR lifecycle and was widely adopted to manage WCR. However, this strategy selected for a rotation-resistant (RR) variant with reduced ovipositional fidelity to cornfields. Previous studies indicated that RR-WCR adults exhibit greater tolerance of soybean tissue diet, different gut physiology, and host-microbe interactions compared to wild-types (WT). To identify genetic mechanisms underlying these phenotypic changes, a de novo assembly of the WCR adult gut transcriptome was constructed and used for RNA-sequencing analyses on RNA libraries from different WCR phenotypes (RR and WT) fed with corn or soybean diets. Differential gene expression analyses and network-based methods were used to identify gene modules transcriptionally correlated with the RR phenotype. Gene ontology enrichment analyses on these modules were then conducted to understand their potential functions and biological importance.
