Genome-wide Analysis of Protein Diversity in Insects

Abstract

Insects are one of the most successful species that can adapt to many different habitats. This feature of insects shows their evolutionary solid skills. Approximately, more than 80% of species described so far belong to Insecta. Advancements in DNA sequence technology and low cost allowed researchers to sequence entire genomes of many insect species. The comparative genomics approach is one of the powerful tools to uncover molecular and evolutionary mechanisms underlying the rapid and successful adaptation of insects. Protein families and their copy numbers are one of the key factors to uncover the evolutionary need of species. Several studies on insect evolution have been performed using different insect taxa. However, these studies focused on gene family evolution and phylogenetic relations. In this study, genomes of twenty insect species were examined to identify protein families and their copy numbers, and their variations in insects. The results showed that insects share fundamental protein families (Receptor proteins, Pkinase, Trypsin) with similar copy numbers to perform essential life tasks. Additionally, several protein families were found to have different copy numbers in some species, which showed that the adaptation need of each species differs. This study also highlighted the variation of several proteins in insects.