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Temperature changes reveal different transcriptional responses in the larvae of the bark beetle Dendroctonus rhizophagus during the cold season
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  • Published: 24 February 2026

Temperature changes reveal different transcriptional responses in the larvae of the bark beetle Dendroctonus rhizophagus during the cold season

  • Moises Becerril1,
  • Gerardo Zúñiga1,
  • Verónica Torres-Banda1,
  • María-Fernanda López1,
  • Claudia Cano-Ramírez1,
  • Gabriel Obregón-Molina1 &
  • …
  • J. Manuel Quijano-Barraza1 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

We are providing an unedited version of this manuscript to give early access to its findings. Before final publication, the manuscript will undergo further editing. Please note there may be errors present which affect the content, and all legal disclaimers apply.

Subjects

  • Ecological genetics
  • Entomology
  • Evolutionary ecology
  • Evolutionary genetics
  • Gene expression
  • Gene ontology
  • Transcriptomics

Abstract

Bark beetle, Dendroctonus rhizophagus, colonises and kills healthy sapling pine trees in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico. In the autumn, its fifth-instar larvae migrate to the host’s roots (hibernaculum) to overwinter; however, little is known about temperature changes in this hibernaculum during the cold season and the physiological responses related to cold tolerance in this species. A three-year temperature record was analysed to define thermal thresholds throughout the cold season in the hibernaculum. Fifth-instar larvae were collected from the thermal thresholds and sequenced using RNA-seq to assemble a global de novo transcriptome. Differential expression, gene enrichment and co-expression analyses were performed to determine the main metabolic pathways and biological processes taking place in these larvae during the cold season. Three thermal thresholds were defined: late-fall, mid-winter and late-winter. In late-fall, the transcriptional response was related to motility and feeding, possibly associated with the migration of larvae to the hibernaculum; in mid-winter, it was related to the physiological adjustments involved in the cold resistance phenotype; and, in late-winter, it was related to the processes involved in pupal chamber construction and the onset of metamorphosis. Our results show that the temperature in the hibernacula and the transcriptional response of fifth-instar larvae of D. rhizophagus change during the cold season, where lower temperatures coincide with the cold resistance phenotype.

Data availability

Sequence data that support the findings of this study have been deposited in the National Center of Biotechnology Information (NCBI) with the primary accession code PQ675428-PQ675541 and PV416796- PV416799.

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Acknowledgements

We thank to Arnulfo Albores Medina and Héctor Manuel Oliver Hernández for allowing the use of Xicoatl Hybrid Supercomputing Cluster of CINVESTAV-IPN; to Ildefonso Ceballos Molina, José Gildardo Bustillos Torres, and Hernán Efraín Escalante Olguín from the Región de Manejo Silvícola de Guachochi A. C. for their assistance in collecting larvae; to Rosa María Pineda Mendoza for the figures editing; and three anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Funding

This research was partially funded by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT-CB 2012/181337) and Secretaría de Investigación y Posgrado del IPN (SIP-20221610). This work was part of M.B.’s PhD dissertation, and M.B. (CVU 814034), J.M.Q.B. (CVU 1008241), and V.T.B. (CVU 232939) were fellows of Beca de Estímulo Institucional de Formación de Investigadores (BEIFI-IPN) and the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencia y Tecnología (CONAHCYT).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Variación Biológica y Evolución, Departamento de Zoología, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Prolongación de Carpio y Plan de Ayala s/n, CP 11430, Miguel Hidalgo, CDMX, Mexico

    Moises Becerril, Gerardo Zúñiga, Verónica Torres-Banda, María-Fernanda López, Claudia Cano-Ramírez, Gabriel Obregón-Molina & J. Manuel Quijano-Barraza

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  1. Moises Becerril
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  2. Gerardo Zúñiga
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  3. Verónica Torres-Banda
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Contributions

Conceptualization, M.B., M.F.L., C.C.R., and G.Z.; Methodology, M.B., V.T.B., and J.M.Q.B.; Software, M.B.; V.T.B., and J.M.Q.B., Validation, M.B., G.O.M., V.T.B. and G.Z.; Formal Analysis, M.B.; V.T.B., M.F.L., C.C.R., G.O.M, J.M.Q.B., and G.Z.; Investigation, M.B., G.Z; Resources, G.Z.; Data Curation, M.B.; Writing – Original Draft Preparation, M.B.; and G.Z.; Writing – Review & Editing, M.B.; V.T.B., M.F.L., C.C.R., G.O.M, J.M.Q.B., and G.Z.; Visualization, M.B.; Supervision, G.Z.; Project Administration, G.Z.; Funding Acquisition, G.Z. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerardo Zúñiga.

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Becerril, M., Zúñiga, G., Torres-Banda, V. et al. Temperature changes reveal different transcriptional responses in the larvae of the bark beetle Dendroctonus rhizophagus during the cold season. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40764-4

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  • Received: 02 April 2025

  • Accepted: 16 February 2026

  • Published: 24 February 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-40764-4

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Keywords

  • Dendroctonus rhizophagus
  • cold-hardiness
  • transcriptomics
  • DEGs
  • co-expression
  • larvae
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