Comparative transcriptomics suggests a highly species-specific nature of the phenotypic plasticity associated with the outbreaks of the two main pest locusts.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Locust outbreaks cause devastation and provide material for fundamental research. They associate with a case of phenotypic plasticity whereby the shift between the two extremes of the polyphenism (i.e., gregarious phase versus solitarious phase) affects behaviour as well as most aspects of the locusts' biology. The phenotypic changes imply changes in gene expression, the changes in behaviour characterize the locusts' phase change, and the changes in the Central Nervous System (CNS) control the changes in behaviour. Thus, understanding and tackling the phenomenon requires studying the gene expression changes that the locusts' CNS undergoes between phases. The genes that change expression the same way in different locusts would be ancestrally relevant for the phenomenon in

SUBMITTER: Bakkali N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11660958 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature