The ecdysis triggering hormone system is essential for successful moulting of a major hemimetabolous pest insect, Schistocerca gregaria.

ABSTRACT: Insects are enclosed in a rigid exoskeleton, providing protection from desiccation and mechanical injury. To allow growth, this armour needs to be replaced regularly in a process called moulting. Moulting entails the production of a new exoskeleton and shedding of the old one and is induced by a pulse in ecdysteroids, which activates a peptide-mediated signalling cascade. In Holometabola, ecdysis triggering hormone (ETH) is the key factor in this cascade. Very little functional information is available in Hemimetabola, which display a different kind of development characterized by gradual changes. This paper reports on the identification of the ETH precursor and the pharmacological and functional characterisation of the ETH receptor in a hemimetabolous pest species, the desert locust, Schi

SUBMITTER: Lenaerts C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5394484 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature