Stage- and sex-specific transcriptome analyses reveal distinctive sensory gene expression patterns in a butterfly.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Animal behavior is largely driven by the information that animals are able to extract and process from their environment. However, the function and organization of sensory systems often change throughout ontogeny, particularly in animals that undergo indirect development. As an initial step toward investigating these ontogenetic changes at the molecular level, we characterized the sensory gene repertoire and examined the expression profiles of genes linked to vision and chemosensation in two life stages of an insect that goes through metamorphosis, the butterfly Bicyclus anynana.

Results

Using RNA-seq, we compared gene expression in the heads of late fifth instar larvae and newly eclosed adults that were reared under identical conditions. Over 50 % of all expresse

SUBMITTER: Ernst DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8327453 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature