Characterization of Wnt Signaling Genes inDiaphorina citri, Asian Citrus Psyllid

The Asian citrus psyllid,Diaphorina citri, is an insect vector that transmitsCandidatusLiberibacter asiaticus, the causal agent of the Huanglongbing (HLB) or citrus greening disease. This disease has devastated Florida’s citrus industry and threatens California’s industry as well as other citrus producing regions around the world. To find novel solutions to the disease, a better understanding of the vector is needed. TheD. citrigenome has been used to identify and characterize genes involved in Wnt signaling pathways. Wnt signaling is utilized for many important biological processes in metazoans, such as patterning and tissue generation. Curation based on RNA sequencing data and sequence homology confirm twenty four Wnt signaling genes within theD. citrigenome, including homologs for beta-catenin, Frizzled receptors, and seven Wnt-ligands. Through phylogenetic analysis, we classifyD. citriWnt-ligands asWg/Wnt1, Wnt5, Wnt6, Wnt7, Wnt10, Wnt11, andWntA. TheD. citriversion 3.0 genome with chromosomal length scaffolds reveals a conservedWnt1-Wnt6-Wnt10gene cluster with gene configuration similar to that inDrosophila melanogaster. These findings provide a greater insight into the evolutionary history ofD. citriand Wnt signaling in this important hemipteran vector. Manual annotation was essential for identifying high quality gene models. These gene models can further be used to develop molecular systems, such as CRISPR and RNAi, that target and controlD. citripopulations, to manage the spread of HLB. Manual annotation of Wnt signaling pathways was done as part of a collaborative community annotation project (<ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://citrusgreening.org/annotation/index">https://citrusgreening.org/annotation/index</ext-link>).