Affiliation:
1. Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University
2. Berry Genomics Corporation
Abstract
Wing dimorphism is a common phenomenon that plays key roles in the environmental adaptation of aphid; however, the signal transduction in response to environmental cues and the regulation mechanism related to this event remain unknown. Adenosine (A) to inosine (I) RNA editing is a posttranscriptional modification that extends transcriptome variety without altering the genome, playing essential roles in numerous biological and physiological processes. Here, we present a chromosome-level genome assembly of the rosegrain aphid
Metopolophium dirhodum
by using PacBio long HiFi reads and Hi-C technology. The final genome assembly for
M. dirhodum
is 447.8 Mb, with 98.50% of the assembled sequences anchored to nine chromosomes. The contig and scaffold N50 values are 7.82 and 37.54 Mb, respectively. A total of 18,003 protein-coding genes were predicted, of which 92.05% were functionally annotated. In addition, 11678 A-to-I RNA-editing sites were systematically identified based on this assembled
M. dirhodum
genome, and two synonymous A-to-I RNA editing sites on
CYP18A1
were closely associated with transgenerational wing dimorphism induced by crowding. One of these A-to-I RNA editing sites may prevent the binding of miR-3036-5p to
CYP18A1
, thus elevating CYP18A1 expression, decreasing 20E titer, and finally regulating the wing dimorphism of offspring. Meanwhile, crowding can also inhibit miR-3036-5p expression and further increase CYP18A1 abundance, resulting in winged offspring. These findings support that A-to-I RNA editing is a dynamic mechanism in the regulation of transgenerational wing dimorphism in aphids and would advance our understanding of the roles of RNA editing in environmental adaptability and phenotypic plasticity.
Publisher
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd