Deep sequencing of the prothoracic gland transcriptome reveals new players in insect ecdysteroidogenesis

Ecdysteroids are steroid hormones that induce molting and determine developmental timing in arthropods. In insect larva, the prothoracic gland (PG) is a major organ for ecdysone synthesis and release. Released ecdysone is converted into the active form, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) in the peripheral tis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2017-03, Vol.12 (3), p.e0172951-e0172951
Main Authors: Nakaoka, Takayoshi, Iga, Masatoshi, Yamada, Tetsuya, Koujima, Ikumi, Takeshima, Mika, Zhou, Xiangying, Suzuki, Yutaka, Ogihara, Mari H, Kataoka, Hiroshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
5-Aminolevulinate Synthetase - genetics
5-Aminolevulinate Synthetase - metabolism
Aminolevulinic acid
Animal Structures
Animals
Arthropoda
Arthropods
Biochemistry
Biology and Life Sciences
Biosynthesis
Bombyx - genetics
Bombyx - growth & development
Bombyx - metabolism
Bombyx mori
Brain research
Cytochrome
Data processing
Drosophila
Drosophila melanogaster
Drosophila melanogaster - genetics
Drosophila melanogaster - growth & development
Drosophila melanogaster - metabolism
Ecdysone
Ecdysteroids
Ecdysteroids - biosynthesis
Enzymes
Gene expression
Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
Gene Ontology
Genes
Genetic aspects
Genomes
Genomics
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Hormones
Insect Proteins - genetics
Insect Proteins - metabolism
Insects
Kinases
Larva - genetics
Larva - growth & development
Larva - metabolism
Larvae
Molecular biology
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Molting
Molting - genetics
NAD
NAD kinase
Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) - genetics
Phosphotransferases (Alcohol Group Acceptor) - metabolism
Physiological aspects
Prothoracic gland
Pupa - genetics
Pupa - growth & development
Pupa - metabolism
Regulatory mechanisms (biology)
Research and Analysis Methods
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA sequencing
RNA-mediated interference
Steroid hormones
Synthesis
Tissues
Transcriptome
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Summary:Ecdysteroids are steroid hormones that induce molting and determine developmental timing in arthropods. In insect larva, the prothoracic gland (PG) is a major organ for ecdysone synthesis and release. Released ecdysone is converted into the active form, 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) in the peripheral tissues. All processes from ecdysone synthesis and release from the PG to its conversion to 20E are called ecdysteroidogenesis and are under the regulation of numerous factors expressed in the PG and peripheral tissues. Classical genetic approaches and recent transcriptomic screening in the PG identified several genes responsible for ecdysone synthesis and release, whereas the regulatory mechanism remains largely unknown. We analyzed RNA-seq data of the silkworm Bombyx mori PG and employed the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster GAL4/UAS binary RNAi system to comprehensively screen for genes involved in ecdysone synthesis and/or release. We found that the genes encoding δ-aminolevulinic acid synthase (CG3017/alas) and putative NAD kinase (CG33156) were highly expressed in the PG of both B. mori and D. melanogaster. Neither alas nor CG33156 RNAi-induced larvae could enter into the pupal stage, and they had a lower abundance of the active form ecdysteroids in their prolonged larval stage. These results demonstrated that alas and CG33156 are indispensable for ecdysteroidogenesis.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0172951