The genome and sex-dependent responses to temperature in the common yellow butterfly, Eurema hecabe
Ivy H. T. Lee,
Wenyan Nong,
Wai Lok So,
Chris K. H. Cheung,
Yichun Xie,
Toby Baril,
Ho Yin Yip,
Thomas Swale,
Simon K. F. Chan,
Yingying Wei,
Nathan Lo,
Alexander Hayward,
Ting Fung Chan,
Hon-ming Lam,
Jerome H. L. Hui
Affiliations
Ivy H. T. Lee
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Wenyan Nong
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Wai Lok So
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Chris K. H. Cheung
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Yichun Xie
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Toby Baril
University of Exeter
Ho Yin Yip
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Thomas Swale
Dovetail Genomics
Simon K. F. Chan
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department
Yingying Wei
Department of Statistics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Nathan Lo
School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney
Alexander Hayward
University of Exeter
Ting Fung Chan
School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hon-ming Lam
School of Life Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jerome H. L. Hui
School of Life Sciences, Simon F.S. Li Marine Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology, Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Abstract Background Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) is one of the most geographically widespread insect orders in the world, and its species play important and diverse ecological and applied roles. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges to biodiversity this century, and lepidopterans are vulnerable to climate change. Temperature-dependent gene expression differences are of relevance under the ongoing climate crisis. However, little is known about how climate affects gene expression in lepidopterans and the ecological consequences of this, particularly with respect to genes with biased expression in one of the sexes. The common yellow butterfly, Eurema hecabe (Family Pieridae), is one of the most geographically widespread lepidopterans that can be found in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Nevertheless, what temperature-dependent effects there may be and whether the effects differ between the sexes remain largely unexplored. Results Here, we generated high-quality genomic resources for E. hecabe along with transcriptomes from eight developmental stages. Male and female butterflies were subjected to varying temperatures to assess sex-specific gene expression responses through mRNA and microRNA transcriptomics. We find that there are more temperature-dependent sex-biased genes in females than males, including genes that are involved in a range of biologically important functions, highlighting potential ecological impacts of increased temperatures. Further, by considering available butterfly data on sex-biased gene expression in a comparative genomic framework, we find that the pattern of sex-biased gene expression identified in E. hecabe is highly species-specific, rather than conserved across butterfly species, suggesting that sex-biased gene expression responses to climate change are complex in butterflies. Conclusions Our study lays the foundation for further understanding of differential responses to environmental stress in a widespread lepidopteran model and demonstrates the potential complexity of sex-specific responses of lepidopterans to climate change.