Project description:The Eurasian spruce bark beetle Ips typographus is known for its devasting attack on the host tree Picea abies, a common conifer in Europe. The beetle uses various pheromone components (2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol and cis-verbenol) for mass aggregation to overcome the tree defence compounds such as terpenes. Though this aggregation pheromone biosynthesis and respective precursors via terpenes detoxification mechanism was investigated for a few decades, gene-level understanding behind these biosynthesis pathways are uncertain yet in I. typographus. Though, applying Juvenile hormone (JH III) on the beetles have induced specific pheromone biosynthesis in many bark beetle species, irrespective of their life stage, it is not uniform found in all Ips species. While investigating pheromone biosynthesis among various life stages of I. typographus, we have also reported recently about the JHIII induction of aggregation pheromone biosynthesis from the gut tissue of the beetle. Thus, in this study, we have applied the concept of JHIII induction on I. typographus and analyzed the respective pheromone and possible biosynthesis precursors from via pathway gene families from the gut tissue of the beetle. A comparative approach from transcriptome and proteome study has revealed the mevalonate pathway genes including isoprenyl-di-phosphate synthase (IPDS) gene (Ityp09271) was upregulated over 5-fold change after JHIII induction in I. typographus. The identified IPDS is suspected to directly involve in 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol, a vital aggregation pheromone of I. typographus. Added to that, a hydrolase gene family was found upregulated over 2-fold change, specifically in the male gut tissue after JHIII treatment. Furthermore, another vital gene family, CytochromeP450 have shown the upregulated (transcript) in the male gut tissue after treatment. Especially Previously reported CyP450 candidates Ityp3140 and Ityp03153 for pheromone compounds cis/trans- verbenol and ipsdienol biosynthesis respectively. Along with CyP450 candidates, the hydrolase gene candidates could possibly involve in braking down the detox compounds such as diglycosylated terpenes and stored wax esters (verbenyl oleate) from the gut possibly provided from the of the beetle body as a reservoir. An added metabolomic analysis has confirmed these compounds abundance was in the gut tissue. Especially, the abundance of the related fatty acid ester (verbenyl oleate) has reduced half in male gut tissue after the treatment. Hence, we have shed light on three possible genes from different families for the respective pheromone and its precursors biosynthesis after JHIII application over I. typographus. This approach would lead us to elucidate the molecular basis of stored pheromone biosynthesis and the derived knowledge from this study would lead to eco-friendly pest management for this aggressive pest. Key words: Ips typographus, bark beetle, pheromone biosynthesis, de novo, Juvenile hormone treatment.
Project description:Social interactions in insects are strongly driven by conspecific chemical signals that are detected via chemoreceptors of olfactory and gustatory neurons. Odorant binding proteins (Obps) transport volatile odorants to chemosensory receptors, but their pleiotropic effects on behaviors and other traits are not well characterized. Here, we knocked down expression of 14 Drosophila melanogaster Obp genes using RNAi and found that seven had reduced male aggressive behavior, particularly Obp56h. RNAi knockdown of Obp56h gene expression also reduced courtship latency; significantly impacted cuticular hydrocarbon production, with a major reduction in 5-Tricosene (5-T); and affected expression of many other genes, including Or19b, Gr97a and several genes associated with lipase activity. We propose that Obp56h plays a dual role in pheromone production and perception and that 5-T, an inhibitory sex pheromone produced by males that increases latency for early stages of courtship, is implicated as a possible ligand for Obp56h.
Project description:Social experience and pheromone signaling in ORNs affect pheromone responses and male courtship behaviors in Drosophila, however, the molecular mechanisms underlying this circuit-level neuromodulation remain less clear. Previous studies identified social experience and pheromone signaling-dependent modulation of chromatin around behavioral switch gene fruitless, which encodes a transcription factor necessary and sufficient for male behaviors. To identify the molecular mechanisms driving social experience-dependent neuromodulation, we performed RNA-seq from antennal samples of mutant fruit flies in pheromone receptors and fruitless, as well as grouped or isolated wild-type males. We found that loss of pheromone detection differentially alters the levels of fruitless exons suggesting changes in splicing patterns. In addition, many Fruitless target neuromodulatory genes, such as neurotransmitter receptors, ion channels, and ion transporters, are differentially regulated by social context and pheromone signaling. Our results suggest that modulation of circuit activity and behaviors in response to social experience and pheromone signaling arise due to changes in transcriptional programs for neuromodulators downstream of behavioral switch gene function.
2021-07-02 | GSE179213 | GEO
Project description:Plutella xylostella Sex pheromone glands
Project description:Background Antennae of fruit flies are the major organs responsible for detecting environmental volatiles, e.g., egg-laying substrates. An adult antenna contains many sensilla full of olfactory sensory neurons, where olfactory receptor (Or) genes are expressed. Each sensory neuron only expresses up to three receptors, making it difficult to estimate expression levels by conventional methods. In this study, we applied Illumina RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to study the expression levels of Or and other genes in fly antennae. Results RNA from approximately 1,200 pairs of adult antennae from each sex of Drosophila melanogaster was used to obtain the antennal transcriptome of each sex. We detected approximately 12,000 genes expressed in antennae of either sex. The most highly expressed genes included pheromone-binding genes, transmembrane transporter genes, and sensory reception genes. Among the 61 annotated Or genes, we observed 53 and 54 genes (approximately 90%) expressed (fragments per kilobase of exon per million fragments mapped (FPKM) > 0.05) in male and female antennae, respectively; approximately 25 genes were expressed with FPKM > 15. Compared to previous studies, which extracted RNA from the whole body or head and used microarrays, antenna-specific transcriptomes obtained by RNA-seq provided more reliable estimates of gene expression levels and revealed many lowly expressed genes. Ninty-one genes, including one odorant-binding protein (Obp) gene and four Or genes, were differentially expressed between male and female antennae. These sexually biased genes were enriched on the X chromosome and showed enrichment in different gene ontology categories for male and female flies. The present and previous data together suggest that a gene family with putative immune response functions is related to pheromone detection and involved in the courtship behavior of male flies. Conclusions Tissue-specific RNA-seq is powerful for detecting lowly expressed genes. Our study provides new insight into the expression of olfactory-related genes in Drosophila antennae.ophila sechellia relies exclusively on the fruits of Morinda citrifolia, which are toxic to most insects, including its sibling species D. melanogaster and D. simulans. Although several odorant binding protein (Obp) genes and olfactory receptor (Or) genes were suggested to be associated with the D. sechellia host shift, a broad view of how chemosensory genes have contributed to this shift is still lacking. We therefore studied the antennal transcriptomes, the main organ responsible for detecting food resource and oviposition, of D. sechellia and its two sibling species. We wanted to know whether gene expression, particularly chemosensory genes, has diverged between D. sechellia and its two sibling species. Using a very stringent definition of differential gene expression, we found 147 genes (including 11 chemosensory genes) were up-regulated while only 81 genes (including 5 chemosensory genes) were down-regulated in D. sechellia. Interestingly, Obp50a exhibited the highest up-regulation, a ~100 fold increase, and Or85c – previously reported to be a larva-specific gene– showed ~20 fold up-regulation in D. sechellia. Furthermore, Ir84a, proposed to be associated with male courtship behavior, is significantly up-regulated in D. sechellia. We also found expression divergence in most of the receptor gene families between D. sechellia and the two sibling species. Our observations suggest that the host shift of D. sechellia is associated with expression profile divergence in all chemosensory gene families and is achieved mostly by up-regulation of chemosensory genes.the evolutionary behaviour of Polycomb group proteins, their recruitment factors and their underlying sequences by performing ChIP-seq analysis in 4-5 different Drosophila species (GSE60428) and HiC analysis in Drosophila melanogaster. We demonstrate an extremely high conservation of Polycomb repressive domains across Drosophila species We validate few cases of PRE divergence that shows that cis-driven PRE evolution is a rare event. We further show that PHO recruitment to Polycomb domains is evolutionarily robust to motif changes and that PRC1 stabilizes binding of its key recruiter
Project description:Silkworms show a reproductive behavior induced by sex pheromone. To elucidate the neral mechanism of sex pheromone induced sexual behavior in the silkworm, we attempted to use the neural activity-induced gene as a neural activity marker. Since no neural activity-induced gene was identified in the silkworm, we conducted screening of neural activity-induced gene using the male silkworm brain. By the screening, we identified Bhr38 as a novel neural activity-induced gene, and succeded to comprehensively map the active neruons in the silkworm brain in response to the sex pheromone exposure. Further, we found that Dhr38, the Drosophila homologue of Bhr38, also expressed in a neural activity dependent manner. These results strongly suggest that Hr38 is a highly conserved neural activity-induced gene.