Characterizing the Bemisia tabaci B biotype salivary gland transcriptome

Bemsia tabaci are phloem feeding insects that have a highly specialized mechanism for piercing plant vegetative tissues and for collecting plant sap directly from the phloem cells. Understanding the molecular components crutical for this process may provide insight into novelinterdiction methods to block the insects ability to feed on imporatnt agricultural plants. To study the moleuclar basis for the B. tabaco feeding process, we have excised salivary glands from adult whiteflies and used these for preparation of cDNA libraries. Because of the small amount of biological material, libraries were constructe using the PCR-based cloning strategy and the Super SMART PCR cDNA synthesis kit from Clontech (Mountain View, CA USA). Double stranded cDNA products were cloned and 2000 clones were randomly sequences. Resulting cloned sequences were annotated and will be presented with respect to those invloved in specific biological functions including hydrolytic processes and feeding structure formation.