Noorda blitealis (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae) is a major defoliating pest of Moringa trees. Focusing on its mating and reproduction, here we sequenced and analyzed the transcriptome of its pheromone glands (PGs) with a combination of Illumina sequencing, bioinformatics and phylogenetics approaches, coupled with a genome-based analysis. Transcriptome sequencing led to the yields of approximately 162 million clean reads, which were assembled into 60,578 unigenes and 121,692 transcripts, respectively. From the transcriptome, totally 117 genes encoding eight pheromone biosynthesis enzymes and one pheromone degradation enzyme were identified, 90 of which had complete open reading frames. A comparative analysis between PGs and bodies (removing PGs) revealed a large number of differentially expressed genes, including 79 pheromone biosynthesis and degradation related genes. Of the identified genes, NbliDES12 belonging to the △11 desaturase group was likely to a strong candidate for the desaturation of sex pheromones in N. blitealis, as implied by phylogenetic analyses and expression profiles. Finally and most notably, through genome and transcriptome analyses we discovered, for the first time, a novel aldehyde oxidase 6 (AOX6) group of the superfamily Pyraloidea that have been slightly expanded by gene duplications. Moreover, each orthologous AOX group shared highly conserved gene structure. Together, this current study has characterized the genes associated with sex pheromone biosynthesis and degradation from the PG transcriptome of N. blitealis, and more importantly, identifies a novel AOX group of the Pyraloidea.

Noorda blitealis（鳞翅目：Pyraloidea：克兰科）是辣木树的一种主要的落叶的害虫。着眼于其交配和繁殖，我们结合Illumina测序，生物信息学和系统发育方法以及基于基因组的分析，对信息素腺（PG）的转录组进行了测序和分析。转录组测序产生大约1.62亿个纯读片段，分别组装成60578个单基因和121692个转录本。从转录组中，总共鉴定出117种编码8种信息素生物合成酶和1种信息素降解酶的基因，其中90种具有完整的开放阅读框。PG和身体（去除PG）之间的比较分析显示，存在大量差异表达的基因，包括79个信息素的生物合成和降解相关基因。在鉴定出的基因中，属于△11去饱和酶组的NbliDES12可能是性信息素去饱和的强力候选基因。系统发育分析和表达概况暗示了N. blitealis。最后，也是最值得注意的是，通过基因组和转录组分析，我们首次发现了超家族Pyraloidea的新型醛氧化酶6（AOX6）组，该组已通过基因复制而得到了轻微扩展。而且，每个直系同源的AOX基团共享高度保守的基因结构。总而言之，这项当前的研究已经表征了与性信息素生物合成和降解的基因相关的基因，这些基因来自褐变猪笼草的PG转录组，更重要的是，鉴定了一个新的Pyraloidea的AOX组。