Holotrichia oblita (Faldermann) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) is an insect whose feeding and mating behaviors occur at night. A scotophase is necessary for H. oblita reproduction. We used RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to compare the expression patterns of H. oblita at five photoperiods (0:24, 8:16, 12:12, 16:8, and 24:0 h) (L:D). Compared to the control (24:0) (L:D), 161–684 differentially expressed unigenes (DEUs) were found in female samples, while 698–2322 DEUs were found in male samples. For all DEUs, a total of 92–1143 DEUs were allocated to 116–662 categories of gene ontology (GO), and 81–1116 DEUs were assigned into 77–286 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. The iPath diagram showed that the DEUs generated by comparing female and male samples with photoperiods of 0:24 and 24:0, respectively, involved multiple metabolic pathways, such as carbohydrate metabolism, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, purine metabolism and glutathione metabolism. Most of these DEUs were upregulated. Finally, 13 DEUs related to reproduction and development were selected to confirm the consistency of relative expression between RNA-Seq and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Most of these comparison results agreed well, except for some qRT-PCR results that were not detected in male samples due to their low expression. These results provide useful information for understanding the dark-induced reproduction of H. oblita.

Holotrichia oblita (Faldermann) (鞘翅目：Scarabaeidae) 是一种昆虫，其摄食和交配行为发生在夜间。H. oblita繁殖需要暗相。我们使用 RNA 测序 (RNA-seq) 来比较H. oblita的表达模式在五个光周期（0:24、8:16、12:12、16:8 和 24:0 h）（L:D）。与对照 (24:0) (L:D) 相比，在女性样本中发现了 161-684 个差异表达的 unigenes (DEU)，而在男性样本中发现了 698-2322 个 DEU。对于所有 DEU，共有 92-1143 个 DEU 被分配到 116-662 个基因本体（GO）类别，81-1116 个 DEU 被分配到 77-286 个京都基因和基因组百科全书（KEGG）途径。iPath图显示，通过比较光周期为0:24和24:0的女性和男性样本产生的DEUs涉及多种代谢途径，如碳水化合物代谢、脂质代谢、核苷酸代谢、嘌呤代谢和谷胱甘肽代谢。这些 DEU 中的大多数都被上调了。最后，选择了 13 个与生殖和发育相关的 DEU，以确认 RNA-Seq 和定量实时聚合酶链反应 (qRT-PCR) 之间相对表达的一致性。这些比较结果中的大多数都很好地吻合，除了一些由于低表达而在男性样本中未检测到的 qRT-PCR 结果。这些结果为理解暗诱导的繁殖提供了有用的信息。H. oblita。