Beijing Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetics, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Insect Sci. 2020 Oct;27(5):1043-1052. doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.12714. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
The geomagnetic field (GMF) is an environmental cue that provides directional information for animals. The intensity of GMF is varied over space and time. Variations in the GMF intensity affect the navigation of animals and their physiology. In this study, the phototaxis of the migratory insect rice planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (N. lugens) and frataxin in N. lugens (Nl-fh), which is a mitochondrial protein required for cellular iron homeostasis and iron-sulfur cluster assembly, were investigated by using different intensities of magnetic field. From the results, individuals of N. lugens showed decreased phototaxis when reared and tested in a behavioral arena under a strong magnetic field. Besides the reduction in performance, an accompanying effect of the strong magnetic field condition was a reduced level of Nl-fh-messenger RNA, and a Nl-fh knockdown indeed impaired the phototactic behavior in a tested sample of insects. This leads to the conclusion that the expression of frataxin is dependent on the strength of the surrounding magnetic field and that functional frataxin facilitates phototactic behavior in N. lugens.
地磁场（GMF）是为动物提供方向信息的环境线索。GMF 的强度在空间和时间上都有变化。GMF 强度的变化会影响动物的导航和生理机能。在这项研究中，通过使用不同强度的磁场，研究了迁徙性昆虫褐飞虱（Nilaparvata lugens）的趋光性和其线粒体内的铁氧还蛋白（frataxin），frataxin 是一种细胞内铁稳态和铁硫簇组装所必需的线粒体蛋白。结果表明，在行为竞技场中，当在强磁场下饲养和测试时，褐飞虱个体的趋光性下降。除了性能降低外，强磁场条件还伴随着 Nl-fh-messenger RNA 水平降低，而 Nl-fh 的敲低确实会损害测试昆虫样本中的趋光行为。这得出的结论是，铁氧还蛋白的表达依赖于周围磁场的强度，并且功能正常的铁氧还蛋白有助于褐飞虱的趋光行为。
