Autosomal linkage of differential gene expression in an insecticide resistant strain of Musca domestica

Autosomal linkage studies on house flies Musca domestica have linked factors on autosomes 2, 3  and 5 in pyrethroid resistance and the factors on autosome 2 have been proposed to have an interaction feature with autosomes 3 and 5. To characterize the possible interaction of factors in the regulation of insecticide resistance and gain a better understanding of the genetic variation, genetic interaction and complex regulation in the development of insecticide resistance of the house fly, we, for the first time, conducted the whole transcriptome analyses of eight adult house fly strains and lines, including one multiple insecticide resistant strain ALHF, two insecticide susceptible strains, CS and aabys, and five house fly lines (A2345, A1345, A1245, A1235 and A1234) with different autosome combinations from ALHF, generated from genetic crosses of ALHF and aabys. A reference adult house fly transcriptome was created by combining the de novo assembled mRNA-Seq analyses of the house flies. Gene annotation was performed and genes were classified into functional categories. Gene expression profiles showed that 1590 genes with molecular functions of hydrolase activity, oxidoreducatase activity, transferase activity, transporter activity, kinase activity, electron carrier activity and receptor binding were up-regulated in ALHF compared with CS and aabys. The expression of these up-regulated genes was varied when the certain autosomes from ALHF were replaced by the respective autosome derived from aabys, i.e., in the different house fly lines, highlighting the interaction and regulation features between/among factors in different autosomes of house flies and, perhaps, in insecticide resistance.