Abstract
BackgroundMolting is an essential biological process occurring characteristic times throughout the life cycle of holometabolous insects. However, it is not clear how insects determine the direction of molting to remain status quo or to initiate metamorphosis. To explore the functional factors that determine the direction of molts, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to identify the molecules involved in larval and metamorphic molting, and the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were compared in the two processes.ResultsThere were 321 and 1140 DEPs identified in larval and metamorphic molting process, respectively. Bioinformatics analyses show that the amino sugar pathway was up-regulated in both processes. The up-regulated protease contributed to the metamorphosis. In addition, several proteins with different expression patterns in larval-larval and larval-pupal transitions, including Endochitinase, GRIM-19 (Genes associated with retinoid-IFN-induced mortality-19), IDE (Insulin-degrading enzyme), Sorcin (Soluble resistance related calcium binding protein), OBP (Odorant-binding protein-2 precursor), TRAP1(Tumor necrosis factor receptor associated protein-1), etc., were further identified by parallel reaction monitoring, which may play diverse functions in larval-larval and larval-pupal transitions.ConclusionsThese results provide a proteomic insight into molecules involved in larval and metamorphic molts, and will likely improve the current understanding of determination of direction of molts.
Highlights
Molting is an essential biological process occurring characteristic times throughout the life cycle of holometabolous insects
To identify proteins related to larval molting and metamorphic molting, the feeding and molting stages of fifth and sixth instar larva were sampled for protein preparation and quantitative proteomics analyses respectively
The results based on parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) supported the shotgun proteomics discovery and revealed that Endochitinase (Precursor), Genes associated with retinoid-IFNinduced mortality-19 (GRIM-19) (Genes associated with retinoid-IFN-induced mortality-19), Insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) (Insulindegrading enzyme), Sorcin (Soluble resistance related calcium binding protein), OBP (Odorant-binding protein-2 precursor), TRAP1(Tumor necrosis factor receptor associated protein-1), and BJHSP (Basic juvenile hormone-suppressible protein 1)(Precursor) were altered
Summary
Molting is an essential biological process occurring characteristic times throughout the life cycle of holometabolous insects. It is not clear how insects determine the direction of molting to remain status quo or to initiate metamorphosis. To explore the functional factors that determine the direction of molts, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to identify the molecules involved in larval and metamorphic molting, and the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were compared in the two processes. Characteristic times molts segmented the lives of complete metamorphic insects into three major life stages, including larvae, pupae, and adults. Previous larval molts progress the larva from one instar to the during which a Existing researches on insect hormones have provided important information on the mechanism regulating molting direction. What other molecules involve in the process of molting and metamorphosis still needs further identification
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