Insulin signaling and FOXO regulate the overwintering diapause of the mosquito Culex pipiens.

ABSTRACT: The short day lengths of late summer program the mosquito Culex pipiens to enter a reproductive diapause characterized by an arrest in ovarian development and the sequestration of huge fat reserves. We suggest that insulin signaling and FOXO (forkhead transcription factor), a downstream molecule in the insulin signaling pathway, mediate the diapause response. When we used RNAi to knock down expression of the insulin receptor in nondiapausing mosquitoes (those reared under long day lengths) the primary follicles were arrested in a stage comparable to diapause. The mosquitoes could be rescued from this developmental arrest with an application of juvenile hormone, an endocrine trigger known to terminate diapause in this species. When dsRNA directed against FOXO was injected into mosquitoes pr

SUBMITTER: Sim C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2373331 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature