Zhang Mei, Chen Jia-Lin, Liang Shi-Ke, Li Guang-Hong, Wang Fang-Hai, Ahmad Ijaz
State Key Laboratory for Biocontrol and Institute of Entomology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
Department of Chemistry, Kohat University of Science & Technology, Kohat, Pakistan.
Insect Sci. 2015 Dec;22(6):731-8. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12179. Epub 2015 Jan 21.
Sogatella furcifera (Hovarth) is a major rice pest with sexual dimorphism. The objective of the current research was to monitor differentially cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in male and female adults of S. furcifera to determine the association between gene methylation and sexual phenotypes using methylation-sensitive representational difference analysis. After the second subtractive hybridization, four differentially methylated DNA bands were obtained and sequenced. Ten different fragments were found. One fragment from the positive hybridization was 120 bp, and highly similar to the tramtrack genes from Nasonia vitripennis. Another fragment from the reverse hybridization was 414 bp, and homologous to the 28S rRNA gene of S. furcifera with a similarity rate as high as 99%. We also discussed how DNA methylation of tramtrack and 28S rRNA genes produced effects on sexual differentiation and development. These results provide potential evidence that DNA methylation of some genes may be related to sexual phenotype variations in S. furcifera and will facilitate future studies on the epigenetic mechanisms of insect sexual dimorphism.
白背飞虱（Sogatella furcifera (Hovarth)）是一种具有两性异形的主要水稻害虫。当前研究的目的是利用甲基化敏感代表性差异分析，监测白背飞虱雌雄成虫CCGG序列上的差异胞嘧啶甲基化，以确定基因甲基化与性别表型之间的关联。在第二次消减杂交后，获得了四条差异甲基化DNA条带并进行了测序。发现了十个不同的片段。正向杂交得到的一个片段为120 bp，与丽蝇蛹集金小蜂（Nasonia vitripennis）的tramtrack基因高度相似。反向杂交得到的另一个片段为414 bp，与白背飞虱的28S rRNA基因同源，相似率高达99%。我们还讨论了tramtrack和28S rRNA基因的DNA甲基化如何对性别分化和发育产生影响。这些结果提供了潜在证据，表明某些基因的DNA甲基化可能与白背飞虱的性别表型变异有关，并将促进未来对昆虫两性异形表观遗传机制的研究。
