University of Toronto Mississauga, Department of Biology, Mississauga, ON L5L 1C6, Canada.
Gen Comp Endocrinol. 2022 Jun 1;321-322:114030. doi: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2022.114030. Epub 2022 Mar 19.
Rhodnius prolixus, the blood gorging kissing bug, is a model insect, extensively used by Sir Vincent Wigglesworth and others, upon which the foundations of insect physiology, endocrinology, and development are built. It is also medically important, being a principal vector of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease in humans. The blood meal stimulates and enables egg production, and since an adult mated female can take several blood meals, each female can produce hundreds of offspring. Understanding the reproductive biology of R. prolixus is therefore of some critical importance for controlling the transmission of Chagas disease. The R. prolixus genome is available and so the post-genomic era has arrived for this historic model insect. This review focuses on the female reproductive system and coordination over the production of eggs, emphasizing the classical (neuro)endocrinological studies that led to a model describing inputs from feeding and mating, and the neural control of egg-laying. We then review recent insights brought about by molecular analyses, including transcriptomics, that confirm, support, and considerably extends this model. We conclude this review with an updated model describing the events leading to full expression of egg production, and also provide a consideration of questions for future exploration and experimentation.
血虱，也就是吸血接吻虫，是一种模式昆虫，被文森特·威格斯沃思爵士（Sir Vincent Wigglesworth）等人广泛使用，昆虫生理学、内分泌学和发育生物学的基础就是建立在对它的研究之上。它在医学上也很重要，因为它是克氏锥虫（Trypanosoma cruzi）的主要载体，而克氏锥虫是导致人类恰加斯病（Chagas disease）的病原体。血餐刺激并使卵产生，并且由于交配后的成年雌性可以多次吸血，因此每个雌性可以产生数百个后代。因此，了解 R. prolixus 的生殖生物学对于控制恰加斯病的传播具有重要意义。R. prolixus 的基因组已经可用，因此这个历史悠久的模式昆虫已经进入了后基因组时代。这篇综述重点关注雌性生殖系统和卵产生的协调，强调了经典的（神经）内分泌研究，这些研究导致了一个描述进食和交配输入以及产卵神经控制的模型。然后，我们回顾了分子分析（包括转录组学）带来的最新见解，这些见解证实、支持并大大扩展了该模型。我们以描述导致完全表达产卵的事件的更新模型结束了这篇综述，并对未来的探索和实验提出了一些问题的思考。
