Odoriferous Defensive Stink Gland Transcriptome to Identify Novel Genes Necessary for Quinone Synthesis in the Red Flour Beetle, Tribolium castaneum

Chemical defense is one of the most important traits, which endow insects the ability to conquer a most diverse set of ecological environments. Chemical secretions are used for defense against anything from vertebrate or invertebrate predators to prokaryotic or eukaryotic parasites or food competitors. Tenebrionid beetles are especially prolific in this category, producing several varieties of substituted benzoquinone compounds. In order to get a better understanding of the genetic and molecular basis of defensive secretions, we performed RNA sequencing in a newly emerging insect model, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).

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Li J, Lehmann S, Weißbecker B, Ojeda Naharros I, Schütz S, Joop G, Wimmer EA