Abstract
BackgroundMost aphids exhibit wing polyphenism in which wingless and winged morphs produce depending on the population density and host plant quality. Although the influence of environmental factors on wing polyphenism of aphids have been extensively investigated, molecular mechanisms underlining morph differentiation (i.e. wing development /degeneration), one downstream aspect of the wing polyphenism, has been poorly understood.ResultsWe examined the expression levels of the twenty genes involved in wing development network, and only vestigial (vg) showed significantly different expression levels in both whole-body and wall-body of third instar nymphs, with 5.4- and 16.14- fold higher expression in winged lines compared to wingless lines, respectively in Rhopalosiphum padi. vg expression was higher in winged lines compared to wingless lines in third, fourth instar nymphs and adults. Larger difference expression was observed in third (21.38-fold) and fourth (20.91-fold) instar nymphs relative to adults (3.12-fold). Suppression of vg using RNAi repressed the wing development of third winged morphs. Furthermore, dual luciferase reporter assay revealed that the miR-147 can target the vg mRNA. Modulation of miR-147b levels by microinjection of its agomir (mimic) decreased vg expression levels and repressed wing development.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that vg is essential for wing development in R. padi and that miR-147b modulates its expression.
Highlights
Most aphids exhibit wing polyphenism in which wingless and winged morphs produce depending on the population density and host plant quality
Expression profiles of wing development genes in wing morphs To determine which genes may be involved in wing differentiation during post-embryonic development in R. padi, we evaluated the expression levels of twenty known wing development genes (Fig. 1) between wingless and winged third instar nymphs using Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR)
The results showed that the expression levels of vg were the lowest in the body wall of the third instar wingless aphids (Fig. 3a), and the highest in the body wall of the third instar winged aphids (Fig. 3b)
Summary
Most aphids exhibit wing polyphenism in which wingless and winged morphs produce depending on the population density and host plant quality. The influence of environmental factors on wing polyphenism of aphids have been extensively investigated, molecular mechanisms underlining morph differentiation (i.e. wing development /degeneration), one downstream aspect of the wing polyphenism, has been poorly understood. Polyphenism is an extreme case of phenotypic plasticity in which discrete phenotypes are produced from the same genotype [2]. Most aphids exhibit wing polyphenism in which winged and wingless morphs are produced depending on environmental stimulus (e.g. population density and host nutrition) during parthenogenetic generations [3]. Wing morphs include determination and differentiation processes that occur at completely different times during aphid
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