Abstract
Spoladea recurvalis is one of the most destructive insect pests of amaranth, a leafy vegetable in both Asia and Africa. The present study characterized the pheromone biosynthesis-activating neuropeptide (DH-PBAN) and pheromone/odorant binding proteins in S. recurvalis. The open reading frame of 600 base pairs encodes a 200-amino acid protein possessing five neuropeptide motifs (DH, PBAN, α-, β-, and γ- subesophageal ganglion neuropeptides) and shares a characteristic conserved C-terminal pentapeptide fragment FXPRL. The full-length genome of Spre-DH-PBAN was 4,295 bp in length and comprised of six exons interspersed by five introns. Sequence homology and phylogenetic analysis of Spre-DH-PBAN have high similarity to its homologs in Crambidae of Lepidopteran order. We quantitatively measured the relative expression level (qRT_PCR) of Spre-DH-PBAN gene, the binding proteins such as odorant binding proteins (OBPs) and pheromone binding protein (PBPs) at different developmental stages. The results confirmed their role in recognition and chemoreception of sex pheromone components, and they were distinct, tissue- and sex-specific. This is the first report on the molecular analysis of PBAN gene and binding proteins, which can improve the understanding of molecular mechanisms of growth, development, and reproductive behavior of S. recurvalis, and may become effective targets for controlling this insect.
Highlights
Physiological processes such as diapause, mating, eclosion, reproduction and metamorphosis are determined by neurohormones, known as insect neuropeptides[1]
The full-length transcript of 672 bp, which comprised of the 34 bp 5′ Untranslated region (5′Untranslated regions (UTR)), 600 bp Open reading frame (ORF), and 38 bp 3′ Untranslated region (3′UTR) was identified from the S. recurvalis transcriptome library
The production and release of sex pheromone in butterflies and moth species were mostly regulated by the neuropeptide, pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN) that plays various biological processes, potentially adapted to control insect pests[4,37]
Summary
Physiological processes such as diapause, mating, eclosion, reproduction and metamorphosis are determined by neurohormones, known as insect neuropeptides[1]. Based on the studies of molecular characterization, DH-PBAN is a multigene family, encoded by five putative neuropeptides – PBAN, DH, α-, β- and γ- subesophageal ganglion neuropeptides (SGNP) These are all well conserved C-terminal FXPRL amide motif, and are released through post-translational processing[5,6]. Physiological functions such as melanization in moth[7], regulation of pheromone biosynthesis[8], and stimulation of embryonic diapause in insects like silkworm moth[9] were well documented, their functions were not aptly understood. We characterized the pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide and binding proteins of S. recurvalis to perform the tissue-specific DNA expression analyzes in both male and female moths with the aim of using the proteins as primary molecular targets for designing and developing new pest management strategies in future studies
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