De novo assembly of a transcriptome for the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus prothoracic ganglion: An invertebrate model for investigating adult central nervous system compensatory plasticity

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 11;13(7):e0199070. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199070. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The auditory system of the cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, demonstrates an unusual amount of anatomical plasticity in response to injury, even in adults. Unilateral removal of the ear causes deafferented auditory neurons in the prothoracic ganglion to sprout dendrites across the midline, a boundary they typically respect, and become synaptically connected to the auditory afferents of the contralateral ear. The molecular basis of this sprouting and novel synaptogenesis in the adult is not understood. We hypothesize that well-conserved developmental guidance cues may recapitulate their guidance functions in the adult in order to facilitate this compensatory growth. As a first step in testing this hypothesis, we have generated a de novo assembly of a prothoracic ganglion transcriptome derived from control and deafferented adult individuals. We have mined this transcriptome for orthologues of guidance molecules from four well-conserved signaling families: Slit, Netrin, Ephrin, and Semaphorin. Here we report that transcripts encoding putative orthologues of most of the candidate developmental ligands and receptors from these signaling families were present in the assembly, indicating expression in the adult G. bimaculatus prothoracic ganglion.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Central Nervous System / cytology
  • Central Nervous System / metabolism
  • Dendrites / metabolism
  • Dendrites / ultrastructure
  • Ephrins / genetics
  • Ephrins / metabolism
  • Ganglia / cytology
  • Ganglia / metabolism*
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Gryllidae / genetics*
  • Gryllidae / metabolism
  • Insect Proteins / genetics*
  • Insect Proteins / metabolism
  • Interneurons / cytology
  • Interneurons / metabolism
  • Nerve Regeneration
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / genetics*
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / metabolism
  • Netrins / genetics
  • Netrins / metabolism
  • Neuronal Plasticity / genetics*
  • Semaphorins / genetics
  • Semaphorins / metabolism
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
  • Synapses / metabolism
  • Synapses / ultrastructure
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • Ephrins
  • Insect Proteins
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Netrins
  • Semaphorins