Transcriptome-Wide Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes in Chinese Oak Silkworm Antheraea pernyi in Response to Lead Challenge

Antheraea pernyi is a commercially cultivated silk moth and a source of insect food with high-quality protein. Insects suffer oxidative stress on exposure to heavy metals, and reactive oxygen species are cleared by antioxidant enzymes. To gain better understanding of the antioxidant defense system of A. pernyi, we analyzed transcriptomes of pupae after stimulation with lead and phosphate-buffered saline (control). In total, 72 367 unigenes were identified. Gene ontology analysis revealed that these DEGs were in 20 biological process subcategories, 19 cellular component subcategories, and 18 molecular function subcategories. Clusters of orthologous groups of protein annotation placed a total of 528 DEGs into 25 categories. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes enrichment analysis identified antioxidant defense pathways, including “Peroxisome” and “Glutathione metabolism”, which are reported for the first time in A. pernyi. Our study enriches A. pernyi transcriptome databases and provides insight into the heavy metal responses of antioxidant systems of this insect fat bodies.