The transcriptome analysis of the bamboo grasshopper provides insights into hypothermic stress acclimation

The bamboo grasshopper, Ceracris kiangsu Tsai, is a pest of bamboos and widely distributed in China from high temperature plains to low temperature plateaus. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the transcriptome of C. kiangsu. Approximately 129,314,084 reads were generated using an Illumina sequencing. De novo assembly yielded 39,013 unigenes with an average length of 987 bp. Based on sequence similarity searches with known proteins, a total of 19,769 (50.67%) unigenes were identified. Of these annotated unigenes, 2114 and 11,412 unigenes were assigned to clusters of orthologous groups and gene ontology, respectively. Furthermore, 2128 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the unigenes Differences were observed in gene expression after hypothermic stress, with the most up-regulated genes including heat shock protein genes (Hsps) and genes involved in ATP-binding. The down-regulation of genes involved in the catalytic activity of metabolic mechanisms was also observed. The obtained transcriptome information revealed the ability of C. kiangsu to build cold-tolerance after exposed to a mild low temperature and the transcriptional responses elicited by hypothermic stress.