Fu Yan, Wu Ting, Yu Hong, Xu Jin, Zhang Jun-Zhong, Fu Da-Ying, Ye Hui
Yunnan Academy of Biodiversity, School of Biodiversity Conservation, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China.
Key Laboratory for Forest Resources Conservation and Utilization in the Southwest Mountains of China, Ministry of Education, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, China.
Insects. 2022 Oct 16;13(10):936. doi: 10.3390/insects13100936.
Of all the things that can fly, the flight mechanisms of insects are possibly the least understood. By using RNAseq, we studied the aging-associated gene expression changes in the thorax of females. Three possible flight energy metabolism pathways were constructed based on 32 key metabolic enzymes found in . Differential expression analysis revealed up to 2000 DEGs within old females versus young ones. Expression and GO and KEGG enrichment analyses indicated that most genes and pathways related to energy metabolism and other biological processes, such as transport, redox, longevity and signaling pathway, were downregulated with aging. However, activity assay showed that the activities of all the five tested key enzymes increased with age. The age-associated transcriptional decrease and activity increase in these enzymes suggest that these enzymes are stable. is a long-distance migrator, and a high activity of enzymes may be important to guarantee a high flight capacity. The activity ratio of GAPDH/HOAD ranged from 0.594 to 0.412, suggesting that lipid is the main fuel of this species, particularly in old individuals. Moreover, the expression of enzymes in the proline oxidation pathway increased with age, suggesting that this energy metabolic pathway also is important for this species or linked to some aging-specific processes. In addition, the expression of immunity- and repair-related genes also increased with age. This study established the overall transcriptome framework of the flight muscle and aging-associated expression change trajectories in an insect for the first time.
在所有能够飞行的生物中，昆虫的飞行机制可能是最不为人所了解的。通过RNA测序，我们研究了雌性昆虫胸部与衰老相关的基因表达变化。基于在所发现的32种关键代谢酶构建了三种可能的飞行能量代谢途径。差异表达分析显示，老年雌性与年轻雌性相比，多达2000个基因存在差异表达。表达以及基因本体（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）富集分析表明，大多数与能量代谢以及其他生物学过程（如运输、氧化还原、寿命和信号通路）相关的基因和途径随着衰老而下调。然而，活性测定表明，所测试的五种关键酶的活性均随着年龄的增长而增加。这些酶与年龄相关的转录减少和活性增加表明这些酶是稳定的。[昆虫名称]是一种长途迁徙者，酶的高活性对于保证高飞行能力可能很重要。甘油醛-3-磷酸脱氢酶（GAPDH）/3-羟基酰基辅酶A脱氢酶（HOAD）的活性比在0.594至0.412之间，表明脂质是该物种的主要燃料，尤其是在老年个体中。此外，脯氨酸氧化途径中酶的表达随着年龄的增长而增加，表明这种能量代谢途径对该物种也很重要或与某些衰老特异性过程相关。此外，免疫和修复相关基因的表达也随着年龄的增长而增加。本研究首次建立了昆虫飞行肌肉的整体转录组框架以及与衰老相关的表达变化轨迹。
