Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Apr 3;24(7):6685. doi: 10.3390/ijms24076685.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play important roles in insect growth and development, but they were poorly studied in insects. In this study, a total of 883 miRNAs were detected from the early embryo (EE), late larva (LL), early pupa (EP), late pupa (LP), and early adult (EA) of by microarray assay. Further analysis identified 179 differentially expressed unique miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) during these developmental stages. Of the DEmiRNAs, 102 DEmiRNAs exhibited stage-specific expression patterns during development, including 53 specifically highly expressed miRNAs and 20 lowly expressed miRNAs in EE, 19 highly expressed miRNAs in LL, 5 weakly expressed miRNAs in EP, and 5 abundantly expressed miRNAs in EA. These miRNAs were predicted to target 747, 265, 472, 234, and 121 genes, respectively. GO enrichment analysis indicates that the targets were enriched by protein phosphorylation, calcium ion binding, sequence-specific DNA binding transcription factor activity, and cytoplasm. An RNA interference-mediated knockdown of the DEmiRNAs tca-miR-6-3p, tca-miR-9a-3p, tca-miR-9d-3p, tca-miR-11-3p, and tca-miR-13a-3p led to defects in metamorphosis and wing development of . This study has completed the identification and characterization of development-related miRNAs in , and will enable us to investigate their roles in the growth and development of insect.
微小 RNA（miRNA）在昆虫的生长和发育中发挥着重要作用，但在昆虫中的研究却很少。在这项研究中，通过微阵列分析从早期胚胎（EE）、晚期幼虫（LL）、早期蛹（EP）、晚期蛹（LP）和早期成虫（EA）中检测到了 883 个 miRNA。进一步分析鉴定出在这些发育阶段中 179 个差异表达的独特 miRNA（DEmiRNA）。在 DEmiRNA 中，有 102 个 DEmiRNA 在发育过程中表现出阶段特异性表达模式，包括 EE 中 53 个特异性高表达的 miRNA 和 20 个低表达的 miRNA、LL 中 19 个高表达的 miRNA、EP 中 5 个弱表达的 miRNA 和 EA 中 5 个丰富表达的 miRNA。这些 miRNA 分别被预测靶向 747、265、472、234 和 121 个基因。GO 富集分析表明，这些靶标富集了蛋白质磷酸化、钙离子结合、序列特异性 DNA 结合转录因子活性和细胞质。DEmiRNAs tca-miR-6-3p、tca-miR-9a-3p、tca-miR-9d-3p、tca-miR-11-3p 和 tca-miR-13a-3p 的 RNA 干扰介导敲低导致 发育异常和翅膀发育缺陷。本研究完成了 发育相关 miRNA 的鉴定和特征描述，将使我们能够研究它们在昆虫生长和发育中的作用。
