Comparative transcriptome sequencing and expression analysis of workers and soldiers of Coptotermes formosanus
FAN Shumin
WU Yuanru
JIA Bao
WEN Xiaolan
LI Zhaotian
Abstract：Objective To understand the transcriptome characteristics of workers and soldiers of Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki,so as to to provide a theoretical reference for clarifying the molecular mechanism of caste differentiation between workers and soldiers.Methods Transcriptome sequencing was performed on the head tissues of workers and soldiers.Differentially expressed genes(DEGs)of the two castes were compared,and Gene Ontology(GO)functional annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes(KEGG)signal pathway enrichment analysis were conducted to analyze DEGs.Results Transcriptome sequencing data of C.formosanus was 39.13 Gb,and 262 172 274 clean reads were obtained after quality control filtering.The GC content ranged from 38.69%to 41.27%.There were 996 DEGs between workers and soldiers.GO functional annotation results revealed that the majority of the DEGs were associated with biological processes.The results of KEGG signal pathway enrichment analysis showed that DEGs of workers and soldiers were significantly enriched(Padjust＜0.05)in the AMPK signaling pathway.Conclusion The genetic differences between workers and soldiers correspond to their respective social divisions of labor.The up-regulated genes were related to immune defense,and the down-regulated genes were related to energy metabolism and protein synthesis.
Keywords：Coptotermes formosanustranscriptomeworkersoliderdifferentially expressed genescomparative analysis
Publication Date：2025-08-20
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-29(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：9( 437-445 )