Hjelmen Carl E, Yuan Ye, Parrott Jonathan J, McGuane Alexander S, Srivastav Satyam P, Purcell Amanda C, Pimsler Meaghan L, Sze Sing-Hoi, Tarone Aaron M
Department of Biology, Utah Valley University, Orem, UT 84058, USA.
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Insects. 2022 Oct 18;13(10):948. doi: 10.3390/insects13100948.
Blow fly development is important in decomposition ecology, agriculture, and forensics. Much of the impact of these species is from immature samples, thus knowledge of their development is important to enhance or ameliorate their effects. One application of this information is the estimation of immature insect age to provide temporal information for death investigations. While traditional markers of age such as stage and size are generally accurate, they lack precision in later developmental stages. We used miRNA sequencing to measure miRNA expression, throughout development, of the secondary screwworm, (Fabricius) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) and identified 217 miRNAs present across the samples. Ten were identified to be significantly differentially expressed in larval samples and seventeen were found to be significantly differentially expressed in intrapuparial samples. Twenty-eight miRNAs were identified to be differentially expressed between sexes. Expression patterns of two miRNAs, and , were qPCR-validated in intrapuparial samples; these and likely food-derived miRNAs appear to be stable markers of age in . Our results support the use of miRNAs for developmental markers of age and suggest further investigations across species and under a range of abiotic and biotic conditions.
绿头苍蝇的发育在分解生态学、农业和法医学中都很重要。这些物种的许多影响都来自未成熟样本，因此了解它们的发育对于增强或改善其影响很重要。这些信息的一个应用是估计未成熟昆虫的年龄，以便为死亡调查提供时间信息。虽然传统的年龄标记，如发育阶段和大小，通常是准确的，但它们在后期发育阶段缺乏精确性。我们使用miRNA测序来测量次生螺旋蝇（法布里丘斯）（双翅目：丽蝇科）在整个发育过程中的miRNA表达，并鉴定出样本中存在的217种miRNA。其中10种被鉴定为在幼虫样本中显著差异表达，17种被发现在蛹内样本中显著差异表达。28种miRNA被鉴定为在不同性别之间差异表达。两种miRNA（具体名称未给出）的表达模式在蛹内样本中通过qPCR得到验证；这些以及可能来自食物的miRNA似乎是次生螺旋蝇年龄的稳定标记。我们的结果支持将miRNA用作年龄的发育标记，并建议在一系列非生物和生物条件下跨物种进行进一步研究。
