Abstract
Dusky-like (Dyl) is associated with the morphogenesis of embryonic denticle, adult sensory bristle and wing hair in Drosophila melanogaster. And whether Dyl involved in insect post-embryonic development and its signal transduction are poorly understood. Here, phylogenetic analysis revealed that dyl displayed one-to-one orthologous relationship among insects. In Tribolium castaneum, dyl is abundantly expressed at the late embryonic stage. Tissue-specific expression analysis at the late adult stage illustrated high expression of dyl in the fat body and ovary. Knockdown of dyl resulted in the defects in larval epidermal pigmentation and completely blocked the transitions from larval to pupal and pupal to adult stages of T. castaneum. We further discovered that dyl RNAi phenotypes were phenocopied by blimp-1 or shavenbaby (svb) silencing, and dyl was positively regulated by blimp-1 through svb in T. castaneum. These results suggest that Dyl functions downstream of Blimp-1 through Svb for larval epidermal pigmentation and metamorphosis. Moreover, ftz-f1 was down-regulated after RNA interference (RNAi) suppressing any of those three genes, indicating that Ftz-f1 works downstream of Dyl to mediate the effects of Blimp-1, Svb and Dyl on metamorphosis in T. castaneum. This study provides valuable insights into functions and signaling pathway of insect Dyl.
Highlights
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Using Drosophila dyl as a reference, 20 homolog genes were obtained from the genome database of D. melanogaster, T. castaneum, Anopheles gambiae, Bombyx mori, Apis mellifera, Acyrthosiphon pisum and Pediculus humanus humanus
We reveal that dyl, svb and blimp-1 are required for larval epidermal pigmentation and metamorphosis of T. castaneum (Figs 3a, 4a and 5a)
Summary
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China. Ftz-f1 was required for cholesterol converted into 20-hydroxyecdysone to control the metamorphosis in D. melanogaster[12] and Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say)[13]. Based on these clues, it is hypothesized that dyl might be associated with blimp-1 and ftz-f1 and involved in the metamorphosis of insect. It is hypothesized that dyl might be associated with blimp-1 and ftz-f1 and involved in the metamorphosis of insect To address these issues, we investigated the function of Dyl in T. castaneum by RNAi in this study. We explored how dyl relates to Blimp-1, Svb and Ftz-f1 These Results indicate that Dyl, Svb and Blimp-1 are essential for larval epidermal pigmentation and metamorphosis in T. castaneum
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