Investigations of candidate genes involved in production of the aggregation pheromone 4,8-dimethyldecenal in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera:Tenebrionidae)

The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is one of the most serious stored product insect pests world-wide.  Adult males of T. castaneum are known to produce the aggregation pheromone 4,8,-dimethyldecenal when they are feeding, while females and starved males do not produce the pheromone.  Here we report the identification of candidate genes potentially involved in the biosynthetic pathway of this pheromone by using Illumina sequencing.  Four different samples, fed and unfed males, as well as fed and unfed females had their abdominal epidermal tissue gene expression patterns compared. In the analysis of genes up-regulated in fed-males, we identified a number of candidate genes that may function in the biosynthesis and/or release of this aggregation pheromone.  We are currently performing RNA interference on the candidate genes to investigate the roles of each gene in pheromone metabolism.