United States Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology Gainesville, FL, USA.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2012 Feb 24;3:32. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2012.00032. eCollection 2012.
Neuropeptides are the largest group of insect hormones. They are produced in the central and peripheral nervous systems and affect insect development, reproduction, feeding, and behavior. A variety of neuropeptide families have been identified in insects. One of these families is the PBAN/pyrokinin family defined by a common FXPRLamide or similar amino acid fragment at the C-terminal end. These peptides, found in all insects studied thus far, have been conserved throughout evolution. The most well studied physiological function is regulation of moth sex pheromone biosynthesis through the pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide (PBAN), although several developmental functions have also been reported. Over the past years we have extended knowledge of the PBAN/pyrokinin family of peptides to ants, focusing mainly on the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. The fire ant is one of the most studied social insects and over the last 60 years a great deal has been learned about many aspects of this ant, including the behaviors and chemistry of pheromone communication. However, virtually nothing is known about the regulation of these pheromone systems. Recently, we demonstrated the presence of PBAN/pyrokinin immunoreactive neurons in the fire ant, and identified and characterized PBAN and additional neuropeptides. We have mapped the fire ant PBAN gene structure and determined the tissue expression level in the central nervous system of the ant. We review here our research to date on the molecular structure and diversity of ant PBAN/pyrokinin peptides in preparation for determining the function of the neuropeptides in ants and other social insects.
神经肽是昆虫激素中最大的一组。它们在中枢和外周神经系统中产生，影响昆虫的发育、繁殖、进食和行为。昆虫中已经鉴定出多种神经肽家族。其中一个家族是由 FXPRLamide 或类似的 C 末端氨基酸片段定义的 PBAN/ 发热素家族。这些在迄今为止研究的所有昆虫中发现的肽在进化过程中一直保持保守。研究最充分的生理功能是通过性信息素生物合成激活神经肽 (PBAN) 调节飞蛾性信息素生物合成，尽管也报道了几种发育功能。在过去的几年中，我们将 PBAN/ 发热素家族肽的知识扩展到了蚂蚁，主要集中在红火蚁， Solenopsis invicta 上。红火蚁是研究最多的社会性昆虫之一，在过去的 60 年里，人们对这种蚂蚁的许多方面都有了深入的了解，包括信息素交流的行为和化学。然而，几乎不知道这些信息素系统的调节。最近，我们在红火蚁中证明了 PBAN/ 发热素免疫反应神经元的存在，并鉴定和表征了 PBAN 和其他神经肽。我们绘制了红火蚁 PBAN 基因结构，并确定了蚂蚁中枢神经系统中 PBAN 的组织表达水平。我们在这里回顾了我们迄今为止对蚂蚁 PBAN/ 发热素肽的分子结构和多样性的研究，为确定神经肽在蚂蚁和其他社会性昆虫中的功能做准备。
