Midgut Transcriptome Analysis of Clostera anachoreta Treated with Cry1Ac Toxin

Abstract Clostera anachoreta is one of the important Lepidoptera insect pests in forestry, especially in poplars woods in China, Europe, Japan and India, et al, and also the target insect of Cry1Ac toxin and Bt plants. In this study, by using the different dosages of Btcry1Ac toxin to feed larvae and analyzing the transcriptome data, we found six genes, HSC70, GNB2L/RACK1, PNLIP, BI1-like, arylphorin type 2 and PKM, might be associated with Cry1Ac toxin. And PI3K-Akt pathway, which was highly enriched in DEGs and linked to several crucial pathways, including the B cell receptor signaling pathway, toll-like receptor pathway, and MAPK signaling pathway, might be involved in the recovery stage when response to sub-lethal Cry1Ac toxin. This is the first study conducted to specifically investigate C. anachoreta response to Cry toxin stress using large-scale sequencing technologies, and the results highlighted some important genes and pathway that could be involved in Btcry1Ac resistance development or could serve as targets for biologically-based control mechanisms of this insect pest.