Genomic compartmentalization of pervasive sex-biased gene expression in the vine mealybug Planococcus ficus.

Authors

Dario Cantu, Rosa Figueroa-Balderas, Mark Sisterson, Andrea Minio, Noé Cochetel, Rachel Naegele, Lindsey Burbank

Published in

G3 (Bethesda, Md.). Aug 20, 2026. Epub Aug 20, 2026.

Abstract

The vine mealybug, Planococcus ficus, is a globally invasive pest of grapevine and a vector of leafroll viruses. Like other mealybugs, it reproduces through paternal genome elimination, a sex-determination system that operates without sex chromosomes and is associated with extreme sexual dimorphism. To characterize genome organization and sex-biased expression in this species, we generated a long-read reference genome spanning 369 Mb with 23,489 annotated genes and macrosynteny conserved with the citrus mealybug, Planococcus citri. Resequencing of four California field individuals provided the first genome-wide baseline of nucleotide diversity for P. ficus and 132 cross-validated microsatellite markers for population monitoring. Phloem feeders secrete proteins that mediate host interaction; of 2,129 predicted secreted proteins in P. ficus, a conserved core is shared with P. citri and each carries a lineage-specific set. Comparing adult male and female transcriptomes, we found sex-biased expression to be pervasive and skewed toward females: 41% of tested genes differed between the sexes, with female-biased genes both more numerous and showing larger fold changes. These female-biased genes were not randomly distributed but concentrated in discrete blocks of coordinately expressed, tandemly duplicated gene families, a pattern not previously described in a mealybug. Male- and female-biased secreted proteins also differed in origin, with male-biased proteins drawn from a conserved repertoire shared with P. citri and female-biased proteins spanning a more lineage-specific pool. Together, these results reveal a female-skewed, spatially clustered architecture of sex-biased expression in a mealybug that lacks sex chromosomes, and provide genomic resources for managing an invasive vineyard pest.

PMID:
42623564
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 21 Aug 2026.

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