Zhang Sufang, Kong Xiangbo, Liu Fu, Zhang Zhen
Key Laboratory of Forest Protection of National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Research Institute of Forest Ecology, Environment and Protection, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China.
Insects. 2020 Feb 11;11(2):116. doi: 10.3390/insects11020116.
walker (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) is the most serious coniferous forest defoliator in China. This species has long life history, and shows different activity rhythms and light response behaviors at larval and adult stages. Insect vision system play important roles for survival and reproduction, and disturbance of photoreception may help us to control this pest. However, we know little about the visual system of . . As opsins are the most important genes determining photoreceptor sensitivity of insects, we identified opsins of and analyzed their expression patterns at different development stages in this study. Four opsin genes were identified based on our transcriptome data. Phylogenetic analysis showed that there are three classical ultraviolet (UV), blue, and long-wavelength (LW) light sensitive opsin genes, and another UV-like opsin as homolog of a circadian photoreceptor, Rh7, in Drosophila melanogaster and other insects. Expression analysis indicated that the UV and UV-like opsins expression levels only fluctuated slightly during whole life stages of , while Blue and LW opsins were up-regulated many times at adult stage. Interestingly, the ratio of UV-opsin was much higher in eggs and larvae stages, and lower in pupa and adult stages; reversely, LW-opsin showed extremely high relative ratio in pupa and adult stages. High expression level of LW opsin in the adult stage may correlate to the nocturnal lifestyles of this species at adult stage, and different ratios of UV and LW opsins in larval and adult stages may help to explain the different visual ecologies of these two development stages of D. punctatus. This work is the foundation for further research of opsin functions and vision mechanisms of .
舞毒蛾（鳞翅目：枯叶蛾科）是中国最严重的针叶林食叶害虫。该物种具有较长的生活史，在幼虫和成虫阶段表现出不同的活动节律和光反应行为。昆虫视觉系统对其生存和繁殖起着重要作用，光感受的干扰可能有助于我们控制这种害虫。然而，我们对……的视觉系统知之甚少。由于视蛋白是决定昆虫光感受器敏感性的最重要基因，我们在本研究中鉴定了……的视蛋白并分析了它们在不同发育阶段的表达模式。基于我们的转录组数据鉴定出了四个视蛋白基因。系统发育分析表明，有三个经典的对紫外光（UV）、蓝光和长波光（LW）敏感的视蛋白基因，以及另一个类似于UV的视蛋白，它是果蝇和其他昆虫中昼夜节律光感受器Rh7的同源物。表达分析表明，UV和类似UV的视蛋白表达水平在……的整个生命阶段仅略有波动，而蓝光和LW视蛋白在成虫阶段多次上调。有趣的是，UV视蛋白的比例在卵和幼虫阶段要高得多，而在蛹和成虫阶段较低；相反，LW视蛋白在蛹和成虫阶段显示出极高的相对比例。LW视蛋白在成虫阶段的高表达水平可能与该物种成虫阶段的夜行性生活方式有关，幼虫和成虫阶段UV和LW视蛋白的不同比例可能有助于解释舞毒蛾这两个发育阶段不同的视觉生态学。这项工作是进一步研究……视蛋白功能和视觉机制的基础。
