Maoqing Gong

Background: The Asian tiger mosquito,Aedes albopictus, is one of the most invasive species and a vector of numerous arboviruses. The deleterious effects of long-term and inappropriate use of chemical pesticides have stimulated the exploration of new, environmentally friendly control strategies. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) have been proven to participate in almost all biological processes of insects.Methods: In this study, circular RNAs (circRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) covering five developmental stages [egg, early larvae, late larvae, pupae, adult (female and male)] ofA. albopictuswere obtained using whole-transcriptome sequencing technology. Combined with long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) from previous research, circRNA/lncRNA‒miRNA‒mitochondrial RNA (mRNA) networks were constructed.Results: A total of 1434 circRNAs and 208 miRNAs were identified. More differentially expressed circRNAs (DE circRNAs) and miRNAs (DE miRNAs) were found in the egg versus early larvae comparison group. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that most of the circRNA/lncRNA‒miRNA‒mRNA networks were involved in chitin metabolism. Hub genes of each circRNA/lncRNA‒miRNA‒mRNA network were screened out, which can be used as novel targets to disturb the molting process ofA. albopictus.Conclusions: Regulatory relationships obtained from competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) networks provide more information to manipulate the metamorphosis process and are helpful for developing effective and sustainable methods to control mosquitoes.Graphical

Background: Aedes albopictusoriginated in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia and can currently be found on all continents. As one of the main arboviral vectors, the control ofAe.albopictusrequires novel strategies, informed by a deep knowledge of its biology. Little is known regarding mosquito long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs), which are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides that lack protein-coding potential and have roles in developmental regulation.Results: Based on RNA-seq data from five developmental time points, eggs, early larvae, late larvae, pupae, and adults (female and male) ofAe.albopictus, 21,414 lncRNAs were characterized in this study. Differential expression analysis revealed that lncRNAs exhibited developmental stage specificity. The expression of most lncRNAs was upregulated at the onset of metamorphosis developmental stages. More differentially expressed lncRNAs were observed between eggs and early larvae. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) further confirmed that the expression patterns of lncRNAs were obviously correlated with specific developmental time points. Functional annotation using co-expression analysis revealed that lncRNAs may be involved in the regulation of metamorphic developmental transitions ofAe.albopictus. The hub lncRNAs and hub gene clusters were identified for each module that were highly associated with specific developmental time points.Conclusions: The results of this study will facilitate future researches to elucidate the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs in the development ofAe.albopictusand utilize lncRNAs to assist with mosquito control.

The Northern house mosquito, Culex pipiens pallens, serves as important temperate vectors of several diseases, particularly the epidemic encephalitis and lymphatic filariasis. Reference genome of the Cx. pipiens pallens is helpful to understand its genomic basis underlying the complexity of mosquito biology. Using 142 Gb (∼250×) of the PacBio long reads, we assembled a draft genome of 567.56 Mb. The assembly includes 1,714 contigs with a N50 length of 0.84 Mb and a Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs (BUSCO) completeness of 95.6% (n = 1,367). We masked 60.63% (344.11 Mb) of the genome as repetitive elements and identified 2,032 noncoding RNAs. A total of 18,122 protein-coding genes captured a 94.1% of BUSCO gene set. Gene family evolution and function enrichment analyses revealed that significantly expanded gene families mainly involved in immunity, gustatory and olfactory chemosensation, and DNA replication/repair.