Barberà M, Martínez-Torres D
Institut de Biologia Integrativa de Sistemes & Institut Cavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Parc Cientific Universitat de Valencia, Paterna, València, Spain.
Insect Mol Biol. 2017 Oct;26(5):654-664. doi: 10.1111/imb.12326. Epub 2017 Jul 5.
Insect hormones control essential aspects of physiology, behaviour and development in insects. The majority of insect hormones are peptide hormones that perform a highly diverse catalogue of functions. Prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) is a brain neuropeptide hormone whose main function is to stimulate the secretion of ecdysone (the moulting hormone) by the prothoracic glands in insect larvae thus playing a key role in the control of moulting and metamorphosis. Moreover, both PTTH release or blockade have been reported to act as a switch to terminate or initiate larval and pupal diapauses. In insects, diapause is a prevalent response often regulated by the photoperiod. It has been shown that PTTH participates as an output of the circadian clock and a role in photoperiodic processes is suggested in some insect species. Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) reproduce by cyclical parthenogenesis with a sexual phase, induced by short photoperiods, that leads to the production of diapausing eggs. With the availability of the pea aphid (Acyrthosiphon pisum) genome, efforts to identify and characterize genes relevant to essential aspects of aphid biology have multiplied. In spite of its relevance, several genomic and transcriptomic studies on aphid neuropeptides failed to detect aphid PTTH amongst them. Here we report on the first identification of the aphid PTTH coding gene and the neuroanatomical localization of its expression in the aphid brain.
昆虫激素控制着昆虫生理、行为和发育的关键方面。大多数昆虫激素是肽类激素，其功能种类繁多。促前胸腺激素（PTTH）是一种脑神经肽激素，其主要功能是刺激昆虫幼虫前胸腺分泌蜕皮激素（蜕皮激素），从而在控制蜕皮和变态过程中发挥关键作用。此外，据报道，PTTH的释放或阻断都可作为终止或启动幼虫和蛹滞育的开关。在昆虫中，滞育是一种普遍的反应，通常受光周期调节。研究表明，PTTH作为生物钟的输出参与其中，并且在某些昆虫物种中，它在光周期过程中也发挥作用。蚜虫（半翅目：蚜科）通过周期性孤雌生殖进行繁殖，短光周期会诱导其进入有性阶段，从而产生滞育卵。随着豌豆蚜（豌豆蚜）基因组的可得性，鉴定和表征与蚜虫生物学关键方面相关基因的工作大量增加。尽管其具有相关性，但多项关于蚜虫神经肽的基因组和转录组研究均未能在其中检测到蚜虫PTTH。在此，我们报告首次鉴定出蚜虫PTTH编码基因及其在蚜虫大脑中表达的神经解剖定位。
