RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 De novo transcriptome sequencing and comparative analysis of midgut tissues of four non-model insects pertaining to Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 127381 DO 10.1101/127381 A1 Rajesh Kumar Gazara A1 Christiane Cardoso A1 Daniel Bellieny-Rabelo A1 Clélia Ferreira A1 Walter R. Terra A1 Thiago Motta Venancio YR 2017 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/13/127381.abstract AB Despite the great morphological diversity of insects, there is a regularity in their digestive functions, which is apparently related to their physiology. In the present work we report the de novo midgut transcriptomes of four non-model insects from four distinct orders: Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera), Musca domestica (Diptera), Tenebrio molitor (Coleoptera) and Dysdercus peruvianus (Hemiptera). We employed a computational strategy to merge assemblies from two different algorithms, which substantially increased the quality of the assembled transcriptomes. Unigenes were annotated and analyzed using the eggNOG database, which allowed us to assign some level of functional and evolutionary information to 79.7% to 93.1% of the transcriptomes. We found interesting transcriptional patterns, such as: i) the intense use of lysozymes in digestive functions of M. domestica larvae, which are streamlined and adapted to feed on bacteria; ii) the up-regulation of orthologous UDP-glycosyl transferase and cytochrome P450 genes in the whole midguts different species, supporting the presence of an ancient defense frontline to counter xenobiotics; iii) evidence supporting roles for juvenile hormone binding proteins in the midgut physiology, probably as a way to activate genes that help fight anti-nutritional substances (e.g. protease inhibitors). The results presented here shed light on the digestive and structural properties of the digestive systems of these distantly related species. Furthermore, the produced datasets will also be useful for scientists studying these insects.