De Novo Transcriptome Analysis of Wing Development- Related Signaling Pathways in Locusta migratoria

Background: Orthopteran migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, and lepidopteran Asian corn borer, Ostrinia furnacalis, are two types of insects undergoing incomplete and complete metamorphosis, respectively. Identification of candidate genes regulating wing development in these two insects would provide insights into the further study about the molecular mechanisms controlling metamorphosis development. We have sequenced the transcriptome of O. furnacalis larvae previously. Here we sequenced and characterized the transcriptome of L. migratoria wing discs with special emphasis on wing development-related signaling pathways. Methodology/Principal Findings: Illumina Hiseq2000 was used to sequence 8.38 Gb of the transcriptome from dissected nymphal wing discs. De novo assembly generated 91,907 unigenes with mean length of 610 nt. All unigenes were searched against five databases including Nt, Nr, Swiss-Prot, COG, and KEGG for annotations using blastn or blastx algorithm with an cut-off E-value of 1025. A total of 23,359 (25.4%) unigenes have homologs within at least one database. Based on sequence similarity to homologs known to regulate Drosophila melanogaster wing development, we identified 50 and 46 potential wing development-related unigenes from L. migratoria and O. furnacalis transcriptome, respectively. The identified unigenes encode putative orthologs for nearly all components of the Hedgehog (Hh), Decapentaplegic (Dpp), Notch (N), and Wingless (Wg) signaling pathways, which are essential for growth and pattern formation during wing development. W