Abstract
Wing dimorphism is considered as an adaptive trait of insects. Brown planthoppers (BPHs) Nilaparvata lugens, a serious pest of rice, are either macropterous or brachypterous. Genetic and environmental factors are both likely to control wing morph determination in BPHs, but the hereditary law and genes network are still unknown. Here, we investigated changes in gene expression levels between macropterous and brachypterous BPHs by creating artificially bred morphotype lines. The nearly pure-bred strains of macropterous and brachypterous BPHs were established, and their transcriptomes and gene expression levels were compared. Over ten-thousand differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between macropterous and brachypterous strains were found in the egg, nymph, and adult stages, and the three stages shared 6523 DEGs. The regulation of actin cytoskeleton, focal adhesion, tight junction, and adherens junction pathways were consistently enriched with DEGs across the three stages, whereas insulin signaling pathway, metabolic pathways, vascular smooth muscle contraction, platelet activation, oxytocin signaling pathway, sugar metabolism, and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis were significantly enriched by DEGs in a specific stage. Gene expression trend profiles across three stages were different between the two strains. Eggs, nymphs, and adults from the macropterous strain were distinguishable from the brachypterous based on gene expression levels, and genes that were related to wing morphs were differentially expressed between wing strains or strain × stage. A proposed mode based on genes and environments to modulate the wing dimorphism of BPHs was provided.
Highlights
Polyphenism is a life history strategy for organisms to deal with heterogeneous environments.Two or more distinct morphs can arise from a genotype as a result of differing environmental conditions [1]
We found in this study that the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the macropterous and brachypterous strains were mainly distributed to the similar Gene Ontology (GO) terms, such as catalytic activity, binding, metabolic process, and cellular process, and the similar Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) units, such as global and overview maps, signal transduction, cellular community, endocrine system, and digestive system among the egg, 3rd instar nymph, and adult stages
The results showed that these functional terms and units might be involved in the regulation of wing dimorphism, and these genes related to the cellular and metabolic process, signal transduction, endocrine, and digestion may be the key genetic basis of wing morphs
Summary
Two or more distinct morphs can arise from a genotype as a result of differing environmental conditions [1]. The waterstrider Limnoporus canaliculatus can produce both the long-winged and wingless morphs that are determined by genetic component and photoperiod [6]. It seems that the wing dimorphism in insects is a phenotypic plasticity of a morphological trait, but it has been confirmed in multiple species that the wing morph is solely determined by genetic mechanisms, or solely by environmental mechanisms, or through a combination of both [7,8,9]. In Myzus persicae, mitochondrial adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT), the chemoreception and takeout-like (TOL) genes
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