The testes transcriptome of the New World Screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax

Authors: Bendele, Kylie; Guerrero, Felicito; CAMERON, CONNOR - National Center For Genome Resources; Perez De Leon, Adalberto - Beto

Submitted to: Data in Brief
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/8/2016
Publication Date: 11/19/2016
Citation: Bendele, K.G., Guerrero, F., Cameron, C., Perez De Leon, A.A. 2016. The testes transcriptome of the New World Screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax. Data in Brief. 9:1141-1146.

Interpretive Summary: The New World Screwworm (NWS), Cochliomyia hominivorax, is a pest insect that is endemic to subtropical and tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere. The female lays eggs in open wounds or orifices of warm-blooded animals. Upon hatching, the resulting larvae feed upon the host's living tissues, which can become infected and death can occur. The sterile insect technique was developed to eradicate this pest from North America and new female conditional-lethal strains that generate only male individuals are being developed for use in the eradication program. To facilitate the identification of new genes and proteins from these new strains, we used a next-generation sequencing protocol to sequence the testes transcriptome of NWS. We report the assembly of 22,063 gene coding regions from testes dissected from NWS males obtained from the J06 strain used in the Pacora screwworm production plant in Panama. Functional annotation analysis allowed the assignment of protein identification information for 11,019, 8,382, 2,479, and 1,543 transcripts with assigned BlastX, Gene Ontology, Enzyme Codes, and KEGG pathway information, respectively. In the Gene Ontology annotations, 5% and 2% of the transcripts in the Biological Process Ontology were noted as involved with NWS developmental processes or reproduction, respectively. This data set will serve as a resource to facilitate studies of sex determination in the NWS and the development of recombinant vectors that can be used to create new male-only strains of NWS.

Technical Abstract: The New World Screwworm (NWS), Cochliomyia hominivorax, is a pest insect that is endemic to subtropical and tropical regions of the Western Hemisphere. The female lays eggs in open wounds or orifices of warm-blooded animals. Upon hatching, the resulting larvae feed upon the host's living tissues, which can become infected and death can occur. The sterile insect technique was developed to eradicate this pest from North America and new female conditional-lethal strains that generate only male individuals are being developed for use in the eradication program. To facilitate the identification of useful transcripts and gene promoters for these new strains, we used an Illumina Hi-Seq protocol to sequence the testes transcriptome of NWS. We report the assembly of 22,063 transcripts (= 100 nt) from testes dissected from NWS males obtained from the J06 strain used in the Pacora screwworm production plant in Panama. Functional annotation resulted in 11,019, 8,382, 2,479, and 1,543 transcripts with assigned BlastX, Gene Ontology, Enzyme Codes, and KEGG pathway information, respectively. In the Gene Ontology annotations, 5% and 2% of the transcripts in the Biological Process Ontology were noted as Developmental Process and Reproduction, respectively. This data set will serve as a resource to facilitate studies of sex determination in the NWS and the development of recombinant vectors that can be used to create new male-only strains of NWS.