Seasonal polyphenism is a common phenomenon observed among members of the Lepidopteran subfamily Satyrinae. Melanitis leda, being a member of that subfamily, exhibits seasonal variation in terms of wing patterning. In...Seasonal polyphenism is a common phenomenon observed among members of the Lepidopteran subfamily Satyrinae. Melanitis leda, being a member of that subfamily, exhibits seasonal variation in terms of wing patterning. In butterflies, wing patterning is due to the nanostructural architecture of the scales, which reflects and refracts incident light, with or without the combination of pigments. The current scanning electron, fluorescence and optical microscope study divulge fine structural and signal changes that occur with different season in the scales of M. leda and give rise to the different wing pattern in butterfly. The structural and consequent signal changes are likely to be correlated with behavioural processes such as mate selection and escape from predation.展开更多
Three species ofnymphalid butterflies, Vanessa cardui, V. indica and Nymphalis xanthomelasjaponica, do not exhibit seasonal polyphenism in wing coloration. To deter-mine whether seasonal non-polyphenic butterflies pos...Three species ofnymphalid butterflies, Vanessa cardui, V. indica and Nymphalis xanthomelasjaponica, do not exhibit seasonal polyphenism in wing coloration. To deter-mine whether seasonal non-polyphenic butterflies possess a cerebral factor affecting wing coloration, we used a Polygonia c-aureurn female short-day pupal assay for detection of summer-morph-producing hormone （SMPH） activity in P. c-aureum. When 2% NaCl extracts of 25 brain-equivalents prepared from the pupal brains of V. cardui, V. indica or N. xanthomelasjaponica were injected into Polygonia female short-day pupae, all recipients developed into summer-morph adults with dark-yellow wings, and the average grade score （AGS） of summer morphs showing SMPH activity was 3.8, 3.7 and 4.0, respectively. In contrast, when acetone or 80% ethanol extracts prepared from pupal brains were injected into Polygonia pupae, all recipients developed into autumn-morph adults with a dark-brown coloration and each exhibited an AGS of less than 0.5. Our results indicate that a cerebral factor showing SMPH activity is present in the pupal brain of seasonal non-polyphenic nymphalid butterflies, suggesting that a SMPH and cerebral factor showing SMPH activity occur widely among butterfly species. This finding will improve our understanding of the presence of cerebral factors showing interspecific actions of SHPH.展开更多
Wing polyphenism is a common phenomenon that plays key roles in environmental adaptation of insects.Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling(IIS)pathway is a highly conserved pathway in regulation of metabolism,de...Wing polyphenism is a common phenomenon that plays key roles in environmental adaptation of insects.Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling(IIS)pathway is a highly conserved pathway in regulation of metabolism,development,and growth in metazoans.It has been reported that IS is required for switching of wing morph in brown planthopper via regulating the development of the wing pad.However,it remains elusive whether and how IIS pathway regulates transgenerational wing dimorphism in aphid.In this study,we found that pairing and solitary treatments can induce pea aphids to produce high and low percentage winged offspring,respectively.The expression level of ILP5(insulin-like peptide 5)in maternal head was significantly higher upon solitary treatment in comparison with pairing,while silencing of ILP5 caused no obvious change in the winged offspring ratio.RNA interference-mediated knockdown of FoxO(Forkhead transcription factor subgroup O)in stage 20 embryos significantly increased the winged offspring ratio.The results of pharmacological and quantitative polymerase chain reaction experiments showed that the embryonic insulin receptors may not be involved in wing polyphenism.Additionally,ILP4 and ILP11 exhibited higher expression levels in 1st wingless offspring than in winged offspring.We demonstrate that FoxO negatively regulates the wing morph development in embryos.ILPs may regulate aphid wing polyphenism in a developmental stage-specific manner.However,the regulation may be not mediated by the canonical IIS pathway.The findings advance our understanding of IIS pathway in insect transgenerational wing polyphenism.展开更多
Callosobruchus maculatus(Fabricius,1775)(Coleoptera:Bruchinae)is a destructive agricultural pest that is harmful to beans worldwide and an important quarantine pest in China.It was divided into two phenotypes based on...Callosobruchus maculatus(Fabricius,1775)(Coleoptera:Bruchinae)is a destructive agricultural pest that is harmful to beans worldwide and an important quarantine pest in China.It was divided into two phenotypes based on polyphenism:normal and flight forms.In this study,we first compared the morphological structures of the compound eyes of the two forms.According to the results of scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),microcomputed tomography(micro-CT),and computer three-dimensional reconstruction,there are no differences in the structures of the compound eyes between the normal and flight forms except for the number of ommatidia.From the internal structure,the compound eyes have a biconvex cornea with open rhabdom and acone eye,crystalline cone directly connected with rhabdom,and no clear zone.It is a kind of apposition eye.Ommatidia facets range in shape from quadrilateral to hexagonal and some irregular shapes.On electroretinograms(ERGs),the normal and flight forms showed different spectral sensitivities:the normal form had the strongest response to ultraviolet light,whereas the flight form had the strongest response to white light.Behavioral assays revealed that the normal and flight forms showed completely opposite phototaxis behaviors;the flight form exhibited positive phototaxis,whereas the normal form exhibited negative phototaxis.This study not only enriches our knowledge on coleopteran compound eyes but also provides a foundation for in-depth research on the photoreceptor mechanisms of compound eyes,which may be useful in pest control management.展开更多
It is becoming more and more apparent that most genetic disorders are caused by biochemical abnormalities. Recent advances in human genome project and related research have showed us to detect and understand most of t...It is becoming more and more apparent that most genetic disorders are caused by biochemical abnormalities. Recent advances in human genome project and related research have showed us to detect and understand most of the inborn errors of metabolism. These are often caused by point mutations manifested as single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs). The GSS gene inquested in this work was analyzed for potential mutations with the help of computational tools like SIFT, PolyPhen and UTRscan. It was noted that 84.38% nsSNPs were found to be deleterious by the sequence homology based tool (SIFT), 78.13% by the structure homology based tool (PolyPhen) and 75% by both the SIFT and PolyPhen servers. Two major mutations occurred in the native protein (2HGS) coded by GSS gene at positions R125C and R236Q. Then a modeled structure for the mutant proteins (R125C and R236Q) was proposed and compared with that of the native protein. It was found that the total energy of the mutant (R125C and R236Q) proteins were -31893.846 and -31833.818 Kcal/mol respectively and that of the native protein was -31977.365 Kcal/mol. Also the RMSD values between the native and mutant (R125C and R236Q) type proteins were 1.80? and 1.54?. Hence, we conclude based on our study that the above mutations could be the major target mutations in causing the glutathione synthetase deficiency.展开更多
Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) of the Glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor (GLP-1R) gene in protein function and structure using different computational software. Introduct...Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) of the Glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor (GLP-1R) gene in protein function and structure using different computational software. Introduction: The GLP1R gene provides the necessary instruction for the synthesis of the insulin hormones which is needed for glucose catabolism. Polymorphisms in this gene are associated with diabetes. The protein is an important drug target for the treatment of type-2 diabetes and stroke. Material and Methods: Different nsSNPs and protein-related sequences were obtained from NCBI and ExPASY database. Gene associations and interactions were predicted using GeneMANIA software. Deleterious and damaging effects of nsSNPs were analyzed using SIFT, Provean, and Polyphen-2. The association of the nsSNPs with the disease was predicted using SNPs & GO software. Protein stability was investigated using I-Mutant and MUpro software. The structural and functional impact of point mutations was predicted using Project Hope software. Project Hope analyzes the mutations according to their size, charge, hydrophobicity, and conservancy. Results: The GLP1R gene was found to have an association with 20 other different genes. Among the most important ones is the GCG (glucagon) gene which is also a trans membrane protein. Overall 7229 variants were seen, and the missense variants or nsSNPs (146) were selected for further analysis. The total number of nsSNPs obtained in this study was 146. After being subjected to SIFT software (27 Deleterious and 119 Tolerated) were predicted. Analysis with Provean showed that (20 deleterious and 7 neutral). Analysis using Polyphen-2 revealed 17 probably damaging, 2 possibly damaging and 1 benign nsSNPs. Using two additional software SNPs & GO and PHD-SNPs showed that 14 and 17 nsSNPs had a disease effect, respectively. Project Hope software predicts the effect of the 14 nsSNPs on the protein function due to differences in charge, size, hydrophobicity, and conservancy between the wild and mutant types. Conclusion: In this study, the 14 nsSNPs which were highly affected the protein function. This protein is providing the necessary instruction for the synthesis of the insulin hormones which is needed for glucose catabolism. Polymorphisms in this gene are associated with diabetes and also affect the treatment of diabetic patients due to the fact that the protein acts as an important drug target.展开更多
文摘Seasonal polyphenism is a common phenomenon observed among members of the Lepidopteran subfamily Satyrinae. Melanitis leda, being a member of that subfamily, exhibits seasonal variation in terms of wing patterning. In butterflies, wing patterning is due to the nanostructural architecture of the scales, which reflects and refracts incident light, with or without the combination of pigments. The current scanning electron, fluorescence and optical microscope study divulge fine structural and signal changes that occur with different season in the scales of M. leda and give rise to the different wing pattern in butterfly. The structural and consequent signal changes are likely to be correlated with behavioural processes such as mate selection and escape from predation.
文摘Three species ofnymphalid butterflies, Vanessa cardui, V. indica and Nymphalis xanthomelasjaponica, do not exhibit seasonal polyphenism in wing coloration. To deter-mine whether seasonal non-polyphenic butterflies possess a cerebral factor affecting wing coloration, we used a Polygonia c-aureurn female short-day pupal assay for detection of summer-morph-producing hormone （SMPH） activity in P. c-aureum. When 2% NaCl extracts of 25 brain-equivalents prepared from the pupal brains of V. cardui, V. indica or N. xanthomelasjaponica were injected into Polygonia female short-day pupae, all recipients developed into summer-morph adults with dark-yellow wings, and the average grade score （AGS） of summer morphs showing SMPH activity was 3.8, 3.7 and 4.0, respectively. In contrast, when acetone or 80% ethanol extracts prepared from pupal brains were injected into Polygonia pupae, all recipients developed into autumn-morph adults with a dark-brown coloration and each exhibited an AGS of less than 0.5. Our results indicate that a cerebral factor showing SMPH activity is present in the pupal brain of seasonal non-polyphenic nymphalid butterflies, suggesting that a SMPH and cerebral factor showing SMPH activity occur widely among butterfly species. This finding will improve our understanding of the presence of cerebral factors showing interspecific actions of SHPH.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(grant number 31970453)the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Project of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences(grant number CXGC2022E04)the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Pest Insects and Rodents(grant numbers IPM2206).
文摘Wing polyphenism is a common phenomenon that plays key roles in environmental adaptation of insects.Insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling(IIS)pathway is a highly conserved pathway in regulation of metabolism,development,and growth in metazoans.It has been reported that IS is required for switching of wing morph in brown planthopper via regulating the development of the wing pad.However,it remains elusive whether and how IIS pathway regulates transgenerational wing dimorphism in aphid.In this study,we found that pairing and solitary treatments can induce pea aphids to produce high and low percentage winged offspring,respectively.The expression level of ILP5(insulin-like peptide 5)in maternal head was significantly higher upon solitary treatment in comparison with pairing,while silencing of ILP5 caused no obvious change in the winged offspring ratio.RNA interference-mediated knockdown of FoxO(Forkhead transcription factor subgroup O)in stage 20 embryos significantly increased the winged offspring ratio.The results of pharmacological and quantitative polymerase chain reaction experiments showed that the embryonic insulin receptors may not be involved in wing polyphenism.Additionally,ILP4 and ILP11 exhibited higher expression levels in 1st wingless offspring than in winged offspring.We demonstrate that FoxO negatively regulates the wing morph development in embryos.ILPs may regulate aphid wing polyphenism in a developmental stage-specific manner.However,the regulation may be not mediated by the canonical IIS pathway.The findings advance our understanding of IIS pathway in insect transgenerational wing polyphenism.
基金funded by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(E290D51135)。
文摘Callosobruchus maculatus(Fabricius,1775)(Coleoptera:Bruchinae)is a destructive agricultural pest that is harmful to beans worldwide and an important quarantine pest in China.It was divided into two phenotypes based on polyphenism:normal and flight forms.In this study,we first compared the morphological structures of the compound eyes of the two forms.According to the results of scanning electron microscopy(SEM),transmission electron microscopy(TEM),microcomputed tomography(micro-CT),and computer three-dimensional reconstruction,there are no differences in the structures of the compound eyes between the normal and flight forms except for the number of ommatidia.From the internal structure,the compound eyes have a biconvex cornea with open rhabdom and acone eye,crystalline cone directly connected with rhabdom,and no clear zone.It is a kind of apposition eye.Ommatidia facets range in shape from quadrilateral to hexagonal and some irregular shapes.On electroretinograms(ERGs),the normal and flight forms showed different spectral sensitivities:the normal form had the strongest response to ultraviolet light,whereas the flight form had the strongest response to white light.Behavioral assays revealed that the normal and flight forms showed completely opposite phototaxis behaviors;the flight form exhibited positive phototaxis,whereas the normal form exhibited negative phototaxis.This study not only enriches our knowledge on coleopteran compound eyes but also provides a foundation for in-depth research on the photoreceptor mechanisms of compound eyes,which may be useful in pest control management.
文摘It is becoming more and more apparent that most genetic disorders are caused by biochemical abnormalities. Recent advances in human genome project and related research have showed us to detect and understand most of the inborn errors of metabolism. These are often caused by point mutations manifested as single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs). The GSS gene inquested in this work was analyzed for potential mutations with the help of computational tools like SIFT, PolyPhen and UTRscan. It was noted that 84.38% nsSNPs were found to be deleterious by the sequence homology based tool (SIFT), 78.13% by the structure homology based tool (PolyPhen) and 75% by both the SIFT and PolyPhen servers. Two major mutations occurred in the native protein (2HGS) coded by GSS gene at positions R125C and R236Q. Then a modeled structure for the mutant proteins (R125C and R236Q) was proposed and compared with that of the native protein. It was found that the total energy of the mutant (R125C and R236Q) proteins were -31893.846 and -31833.818 Kcal/mol respectively and that of the native protein was -31977.365 Kcal/mol. Also the RMSD values between the native and mutant (R125C and R236Q) type proteins were 1.80? and 1.54?. Hence, we conclude based on our study that the above mutations could be the major target mutations in causing the glutathione synthetase deficiency.
文摘Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs) of the Glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor (GLP-1R) gene in protein function and structure using different computational software. Introduction: The GLP1R gene provides the necessary instruction for the synthesis of the insulin hormones which is needed for glucose catabolism. Polymorphisms in this gene are associated with diabetes. The protein is an important drug target for the treatment of type-2 diabetes and stroke. Material and Methods: Different nsSNPs and protein-related sequences were obtained from NCBI and ExPASY database. Gene associations and interactions were predicted using GeneMANIA software. Deleterious and damaging effects of nsSNPs were analyzed using SIFT, Provean, and Polyphen-2. The association of the nsSNPs with the disease was predicted using SNPs & GO software. Protein stability was investigated using I-Mutant and MUpro software. The structural and functional impact of point mutations was predicted using Project Hope software. Project Hope analyzes the mutations according to their size, charge, hydrophobicity, and conservancy. Results: The GLP1R gene was found to have an association with 20 other different genes. Among the most important ones is the GCG (glucagon) gene which is also a trans membrane protein. Overall 7229 variants were seen, and the missense variants or nsSNPs (146) were selected for further analysis. The total number of nsSNPs obtained in this study was 146. After being subjected to SIFT software (27 Deleterious and 119 Tolerated) were predicted. Analysis with Provean showed that (20 deleterious and 7 neutral). Analysis using Polyphen-2 revealed 17 probably damaging, 2 possibly damaging and 1 benign nsSNPs. Using two additional software SNPs & GO and PHD-SNPs showed that 14 and 17 nsSNPs had a disease effect, respectively. Project Hope software predicts the effect of the 14 nsSNPs on the protein function due to differences in charge, size, hydrophobicity, and conservancy between the wild and mutant types. Conclusion: In this study, the 14 nsSNPs which were highly affected the protein function. This protein is providing the necessary instruction for the synthesis of the insulin hormones which is needed for glucose catabolism. Polymorphisms in this gene are associated with diabetes and also affect the treatment of diabetic patients due to the fact that the protein acts as an important drug target.
