Genomic Identification and Comparative Characterization of Chemosensory Genes in Two Walnut Pests

Abstract

Simple Summary Conogethes punctiferalis and Atrijuglans aristata are two major insect pests infesting walnut fruits in China. The former is a generalist, whereas the latter is a specialist. Chemosensory genes regulate a broad spectrum of physiological and behavioral processes in insects, rendering these genes promising candidates for functional studies related to pest management. In this study, we employed a standardized pipeline for genome annotation and gene family identification to systematically identify and compare the chemosensory gene families of both species. Based on these standardized annotations, our results reveal that the two species possess similar numbers of candidate gustatory receptor (GR), odorant-binding protein (OBP), and chemosensory protein (CSP) genes, whereas A. aristata harbors more candidate odorant receptor genes (65) than C. punctiferalis (46). The identified chemosensory genes were either tandemly arrayed or dispersed on chromosomes. Our findings provide valuable genomic resources for the two walnut pest species and establish a catalog of candidate chemosensory genes for future functional validation.