Arthropod genomics initiative kick-off: R. microplus nymph transcriptome

TIRLONI, L.; GUIZZO, M.G.; VERA, P.; GONZALEZ S; RIVAROLA M; OLIVEIRA P; VAZ JR., I; FARBER MD

Bariloche

Congreso; VII Congreso Argentino de Parasitología, 1 a 5 de Noviembre, Bariloche; 2015

Sociedad Argentina de Parasitología

Genomics has greatly influenced the biological sciences in the last two decades. The development of new massive sequencing technologies of reduced cost allowed the use of these high throughput tools to answer important biological questions. In this context, a Brazil and Argentina network was start up to apply genomic and bioinformatic approaches to study arthropods of regional interest. Particularly, we focus on R. microplus transcriptome, an ectoparasite responsible for large economic losses in livestock, to gain insight into the repertoire of mRNA molecules expressed at nymph stage. The 14-day-old nymphs were collected, total RNA was extracted, mRNA libraries were prepared using Illumina TruSeq kit and sequencing performed using MiSeq platform. De novo transcriptome assembly was performed using Trinity. BLAST searches against several invertebrate databases were performed for annotation. We obtained high quality paired end libraries with more than 8.2 million raw reads that resulted in approximately 85,000 transcripts after de novo assembly. Annotation process generated a total of 35,222 transcripts matching invertebrate databases. Categories identified include transcripts related to cytoskeletal functions, detoxification/oxidation processes, extracellular matrix components, immune-related products, metabolism of lipids, nucleotides and carbohydrates, proteases, protease inhibitors, and others. Here we present the first transcriptome of the nymphal stage of the cattle tick R. microplus. This study helps identify tick proteins that are important during tick life cycle and these data contributes to the understanding of tick physiology and the tick-host relationship.