Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 14;7:44105. doi: 10.1038/srep44105.
The corn borer is a world-wide agricultural pest. In this study, a full-length neuropeptide F (npf) gene in Ostrinia furnacalis was sequenced and cloned from a cDNA library, in which the npf gene produces two splicing mRNA variants - npf1 and npf2 (with a 120 bp segment inserted into the npf1 sequence to generate npf2). A spatio-temporal expression analysis showed that the highest expression level of npf was in the midgut of 5 instar larvae (the gluttony period), and their npf expression and food consumption were significantly promoted after food deprivation for 6 h. When npf was knocked down by double-stranded RNA for NPF, larval food intake, weight and body size were effectively inhibited through changes of a biosynthesis and metabolism pathway; i.e. gene silencing of NPF causes decreases of total lipid and glycogen and increases of trehalose production. Moreover, we produced transgenic corn plants with stably expressed dsNPF. Results showed that O. furnacalis larvae fed on these transgenic leaves had lower food consumption and smaller body size compared to controls. These results indicate that NPF is important in the feeding control of O. furnacalis and valuable for production of potential transgenic corn.
玉米螟是一种世界性的农业害虫。本研究从 cDNA 文库中测序并克隆了一种全长神经肽 F（npf）基因，该基因产生两种剪接 mRNA 变体-npf1 和 npf2（npf1 序列中插入了 120bp 片段，生成 npf2）。时空表达分析表明，npf 在 5 龄幼虫的中肠中表达水平最高（暴食期），在饥饿 6 小时后，其 npf 表达和食物消耗显著增加。当 NPF 通过双链 RNA 敲低时，通过改变生物合成和代谢途径，幼虫的食物摄入、体重和体型得到有效抑制；即 NPF 的基因沉默导致总脂质和糖原减少，海藻糖产量增加。此外，我们还生产了稳定表达 dsNPF 的转基因玉米植株。结果表明，与对照相比，取食这些转基因叶片的玉米螟幼虫的食物消耗和体型较小。这些结果表明 NPF 在玉米螟的摄食控制中很重要，对于生产潜在的转基因玉米具有重要价值。
