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Comprehensive expression datasets were constructed for Apis mellifera and Apis cerana japonica. Post-oviposition day 6 to day 58 samples of A. mellifera workers (larva to adult); day 9, 10, 12, and 13 samples of A. mellifera queen (larva to pupa); and day 9 to day 18 samples of A. cerana japonica workers (larva to adult) were prepared, and RNA-Seq...
Time-course transcriptome expression data were constructed for four parts of the silk gland (anterior, middle, and posterior parts of the middle silk gland, along with the posterior silk gland) in the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, from days 0 to 7 of the last-instar larvae. For sample preparation, silk glands were extracted from one female and on...
Although it is generally believed that large DNA viruses capture genes by horizontal gene transfer (HGT), the detailed manner of such transfer has not been fully elucidated. Here, we searched for genes in the coleopteran entomopoxvirus (EV) Anomala cuprea entomopoxvirus (ACEV) that might have been gained by ACEV by HGT. We classified the potential...
Using PCR-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) with mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I sequences, we examined the reproductive modes of female adults of Thrips tabaci collected at 54 sites across Japan. Results showed the presence of heteroplasmic insects harboring mitochondria associated with arrhenotoky and thelytoky. Using t...
Time-course transcriptome expression data were constructed for four parts of the silk gland (anterior, middle, and posterior parts of the middle silk gland, along with the posterior silk gland) in the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, from days 0 to 7 of the last-instar larvae. For sample preparation, silk glands were extracted from one female and on...
In onion thrips Thrips tabaci, reduced sensitivity of the sodium channel caused by several sodium channel mutations have been correlated with pyrethroid resistance. For this study, using mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene sequences, we examined the phylogenetic relation among a total of 52 thelytokous and arrhenotokous strains with d...
Quercetin is a common plant flavonoid which is involved in herbivore–plant interactions. Mulberry silkworms (domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, and wild silkworm, Bombyx mandarina) take up quercetin from mulberry leaves and accumulate the metabolites in the cocoon, thereby improving its protective properties. Here we identified a glycoside hydrolase,...
Quercetin is a common plant flavonoid that is involved in herbivore–plant interactions. Mulberry silkworms (domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori , and wild silkworm, Bombyx mandarina ) uptake quercetin from mulberry leaves and accumulate the metabolites in the cocoon, thereby improving its protective properties. Here we identified and characterized a gly...
Honey bees are important for agriculture (e.g., pollination and honey production). Additionally, honey bees are an important insect model species, especially as model social insects. The Japanese honey bee, Apis cerana japonica (a subspecies of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana), is a Japanese domestic honey bee, which has several subspecies-specifi...
In most eukaryotes, biparentally inherited nuclear genomes and maternally inherited cytoplasmic genomes have different evolutionary interests. Strongly female-biased sex ratios that are repeatedly observed in various arthropods often result from the male-specific lethality (male-killing) induced by maternally inherited symbiotic bacteria such as Sp...
The silkworm (Bombyx mori) is an important lepidopteran model insect, and an industrial domestic animal traditionally used for silk production. Here, we report the genome assembly of an improved Japanese strain Nichi01, in which the cocoon yield is comparable to that of commercial silkworm strains. The integration of PacBio Sequel II long-read and...
Lepidopteran insects are an important group of animals, including those used as biochemical and physiological model species in the insect and silk industries as well as others that are major agricultural pests. Therefore, the genome sequences of several lepidopteran insects have been reported. The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata, is an agricul...
The diamondback moth Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) is one of the most destructive insect pests worldwide which has developed resistance to many insecticides. Previously, a point mutation (I4790K) in a ryanodine receptor gene, a target gene of diamides, was identified as a major factor of resistance of the diamondback moth to c...
Lepidopteran insects are an important group of animals, among which some are used as biochemical and physiological model species in the insect and silk industries, whereas others are major agricultural pests. Therefore, genome sequences of several lepidopteran insects have been reported thus far. Mythimna separata is an agricultural pest commonly u...
The silkworm (Bombyx mori) is an important lepidopteran model insect, and an industrial domestic animal traditionally used for silk production. Here, we report the genome assembly of an improved Japanese strain Nichi01, in which the cocoon yield is comparable to that of commercial silkworm strains. The integration of PacBio Sequel II long-read and...
BACKGROUND
Insecticide resistance management has been key for crop protection for over 70 years and is increasingly important because the development of new active ingredients has decreased in recent years. By monitoring the development of resistance in a timely manner, we can effectively prolong insecticide efficacy. Genomic‐based diagnosis can re...
Pyridaben is a mitochondrial electron transport complex I inhibitor. The H110R mutation in the PSST subunit has been reported as a major factor in pyridaben resistance in the two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae. However, backcross experiments revealed that the mutant PSST alone conferred only moderate resistance. In contrast, inhibition of...
The smaller tea tortrix, Adoxophyes honmai Yasuda (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is one of the most common pests that affect the tea plant, Camellia sinensis (L.) O. Kuntze. Diacylhydrazine-analog insect growth regulators, such as tebufenozide, have been used as controls; however, the species began showing resistance to this compound in approximately...
Insect metamorphosis into an adult occurs after the juvenile hormone (JH) titer decreases at the end of the juvenile stage. This generally coincides with decreased transcript levels of JH-response transcription factors Krüppel homolog 1 (Kr-h1) and broad (br), and increased transcript levels of the adult specifier E93. Thrips (Thysanoptera) develop...
Herein, we performed RNA-seq analysis of ten major tissues/subparts of silkworm larvae. The sequences were mapped onto the reference genome assembly and the reference transcriptome data were successfully constructed. The reference data provided a nearly complete sequence for sericin-1, a major silk gene with a complex structure. We also markedly im...
KAIKObase was established in 2009 as the genome database of the domesticated silkworm Bombyx mori. It provides several gene sets and genetic maps as well as genome annotation obtained from the sequencing project of the International Silkworm Genome Consortium in 2008. KAIKObase has been used widely for silkworm and insect studies even though there...
Insect juvenile hormone (JH) mimics (JHMs) are known to have ovicidal effects if applied to adult females or eggs. Here, we examined the effects of exogenous JHMs on embryonic development of the bean bug, Riptortus pedestris. The expression profiles of JH early response genes and JH biosynthetic enzymes indicated that JH titer was low for the first...
Development of a reliable method for RNA interference (RNAi) by orally-delivered double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) is potentially promising for crop protection. Considering that RNAi efficiency considerably varies among different insect species, it is important to seek for the practical conditions under which dsRNA-mediated RNAi effectively works against...
BACKGROUND
The brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), is one of the most notorious pests of rice throughout Asia. The brown planthopper has developed high resistance to imidacloprid, a member of neonicotinoid insecticides. Several genes and mutations conferring imidacloprid resistance in N. lugens, especially in eastern and southeastern Asia...
BACKGROUND
The investigation of molecular mechanisms and evolution of resistance to insecticides is an ongoing challenge, as researchers must provide guidance to manage the resistance to achieve sustainable production in agriculture. Predicting, monitoring, and managing insecticide resistance requires information on the origins, selection, and spre...
Lepidopteran insects produce cocoons with unique properties. The cocoons are made of silk produced in the larval tissue silk gland and our understanding of the silk genes is still very limited. Here, we investigated silk genes in the bagworm moth Eumeta variegata , a species that has recently been found to produce extraordinarily strong and tough s...
Insect molting hormone (ecdysteroids) and juvenile hormone regulate molting and metamorphic events in a variety of insect species. Mealybugs undergo sexually dimorphic metamorphosis: males develop into winged adults through non-feeding, pupa-like stages called prepupa and pupa, while females emerge as neotenic wingless adults. We previously demonst...
We constructed a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library from the large white butterfly, Pieris brassicae (L.) (Lepidoptera: Pieridae), which composed of 15,360 clones with an average insert size of 103 kb. We designed 39 degenerate oligonucleotide primer pairs and cloned the PCR products for sequencing. From these plus pierisin data, we desi...
This study examined diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) strains showing high-level resistance to cyantraniliprole (KA17 strain) and to flubendiamide and chlorantraniliprole (KU13 strain). The LC50 value of the KA17 strain against cyantraniliprole was ca. 100-fold higher than that of the KU13 strain. The KA17 strain also exhibited high-level resi...
There has been long taxonomic debate on mulberry species (genus Morus) because the classification of mulberry species has relied on morphological characteristics. Although attempts for classifying mulberry species using molecular markers have been performed, phylogenetic relationships among diploid mulberry species remain unclear. In this study, we...
Global ecological damage has heightened the demand for silk as ‘a structural material made from sustainable resources’. Scientists have earnestly searched for stronger and tougher silks. Bagworm silk might be a promising candidate considering its superior capacity to dangle a heavy weight, summed up by the weights of the larva and its house. Howeve...
Pyrethroid-resistance in onion thrips, Thrips tabaci, has been reported in many countries including Japan. Identifying factors of the resistance is important to correctly monitoring the resistance in field populations. To identify pyrethroid-resistance related genes in T. tabaci in Japan, we performed RNA-Seq analysis of seven T. tabaci strains inc...
The smaller tea tortrix, Adoxophyes honmai Yasuda (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae), is one of the main insect pests of tea, Camellia sinensis Kuntz, in Japan. Recently, A. honmai has developed a high resistance to diacylhydrazine analog insect growth regulators, such as tebufenozide, in Shizuoka Prefecture. Previously, we identified a point mutation (A41...
The smaller tea tortrix, Adoxophyes honmai, has developed strong resistance to tebufenozide, a diacylhydrazine-type (DAH) insecticide. Here, we investigated its mechanism by identifying genes responsible for the tebufenozide resistance using various next generation sequencing techniques. First, double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequenci...
In insects, antimicrobial humoral immunity is governed by two distinct gene cascades, IMD pathway mainly targeting Gram-negative bacteria and Toll pathway preferentially targeting Gram-positive bacteria, which are widely conserved among diverse metazoans. However, recent genomic studies uncovered that IMD pathway is exceptionally absent in some hem...
In 2008, the genome assembly and gene models for the domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori, were published by a Japanese and Chinese collaboration group. However, the genome assembly contains a non-negligible number of misassembled and gap regions due to the presence of many repetitive sequences within the silkworm genome. The erroneous genome assembly oc...
Insect metamorphosis produces reproductive adults and is commonly accompanied with the direct or indirect development of wings. In some winged insects, the imago is altered by life history changes. For instance, in scale insects and mealybugs, reproductive females retain juvenile features and are wingless. The transcription factor E93 triggers meta...
The tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura, is among the most widespread and destructive agricultural pests, feeding on over 100 crops throughout tropical and subtropical Asia. By genome sequencing, physical mapping and transcriptome analysis, we found that the gene families encoding receptors for bitter or toxic substances and detoxification enzymes,...
Wolbachia is a maternally inherited ubiquitous endosymbiotic bacterium of arthropods that displays a diverse repertoire of host reproductive manipulations. For the first time, we demonstrate that Wolbachia manipulates sex chromosome inheritance in a sexually reproducing insect. Eurema mandarina butterfly females on Tanegashima Island, Japan, are in...
Figure S3. Estimate of Z‐linked gene dose of E. mandarina.
Figure S4. Genotyping of Z chromosome based on nucleotide polymorphism of Tpi.
Figure S1. Distribution of E. mandarina in Japanese archipelago.
Figure S6. Intersexual and normal adults.
Figure S2. Relative normalized sequence read counts for 440 contigs of E. mandarina that matched to B. mori loci on 28 chromosomes.
Figure S5. Detection of Emdsx in adults that were tet‐treated during various larval stages.
Figure S7. Amino acid sequences of dsx genes.
The cotton aphid, Aphis gossypii Glover, is one of the most agriculturally important insect pests. Neonicotinoid insecticides and sulfoxaflor have generally shown excellent control of A. gossypii, but these aphids have recently developed resistance against neonicotinoid insecticides. We previously characterized a field-collected A. gossypii Kushima...
A field-collected A. gossypii clone [Kushima resistant (KR) clone] was resistant to neonicotinoid insecticides (23.8- to 394-fold). RNA-seq and next-generation sequence analyses were conducted to identify nine cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes that were significantly upregulated in the KR clone as compared with those in the insecticide-susceptible clone....
We examined the susceptibility of field strains (BO-1, BO-2, TO-1, and YH-1) and one laboratory strain (H-1) of the western flower thrip, Frankliniella occidentalis, to benzoylureas. LC50 values of novaluron were determined as 0.64 ppm against laboratory strain and 2.1–130 ppm against field strains. In the presence of piperonyl butoxide, a cytochro...
Genomes are vulnerable to selfish genetic elements that enhance their own transmission often at the expense of host fitness. Examples are cytoplasmic elements such as maternally inherited bacteria that cause feminization, male-killing, parthenogenesis and cytoplasmic incompatibility. We demonstrate, for the first time, that segregation distortion,...
A method to estimate proportions of the G4946E mutation in the ryanodine receptor gene, a major mechanism of diamide insecticide resistance, was developed for Plutella xylostella Linnaeus populations using quantitative sequencing (QS). Using the QS-based method, the relationship between proportions of the G4946E mutation and mortalities for diamide...
The mitochondrial phosphate carrier gene (PiC) encodes a membrane protein that mediates the supply of inorganic phosphate from the cytosol into the mitochondrial matrix. This substrate-specific transport system plays an important role in efficient ATP synthesis. Mammals appear to have only one PiC with two alternative splicing variants whose functi...
Albinism is caused by mutations in the genes involved in melanin production. Albino nymphs of Locusta migratoria and Schistocerca gregaria reared under crowded conditions are uniformly creamy-white in color. However, nothing is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon in locusts. The albino strain of L. migratoria is known to...
Significance
Juvenile hormone (JH) intricately controls molting and metamorphosis in holometabolous insects. Ecdysone-induced protein 93F ( E93 ) functions as an adult specifier gene in the pupal–adult transition. JH is known to repress E93 expression to prevent immature larvae from bypassing the pupal stage and progressing to precocious adult deve...
The RNA interference (RNAi) technology has been widely used in basic and applied research. It is known that
RNAi works in some species but not in others, although the cause for this difference remains unclear. Here, we
present inter- and intra-populational variations in RNAi sensitivity in the migratory locust Locusta migratoria,
and provide inform...
Adenine nucleotide translocase (ANT) is a nuclear-coded mitochondrial protein that exchanges ATP for ADP across the mitochondrial inner membrane. Most organisms possess several ANT paralogues, and functional differences among these paralogues remain largely unknown. In the present study, we identified ANT paralogue genes in hemipteran species: the...
Scale insects have evolved extreme sexual dimorphism, as demonstrated by sedentary juvenile-like females and ephemeral winged males. This dimorphism is established during the post-embryonic development; however, the underlying regulatory mechanisms have not yet been examined. We herein assessed the role of juvenile hormone (JH) on the diverging dev...
Expression profiles of PkKr-h1 isoforms during male and female development after oviposition.
A. PkKr-h1 A, B. PkKr-h1 B. E: Egg, N1: 436 first-instar nymph, N2: second-instar nymphs, N3: female third-instar nymph, Pre: 437 male prepupa, Pu: male pupa, m: male adult, f: female adult. Samples were collected 438 from E to N2D3 using the sex-ratio bia...
Structures and expression of Pktai isoforms.
A. Protein structure of PkMet with bHLH, PAS and PAS B domains. B. Structure of PkTai with the identified isoforms. Grey: Open Reading Frame. C. Expression profiles of Pktai IN-1 and Pktai DEL-1. D. Expression profiles of Pktai 5A and Pktai 5B.
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Structure of Pkbr.
A. Alignment of the BTB domain of Br in different insect species. GenBank accession numbers: Bg (Blattella germanica): CBJ05857, Of (Oncopeltus fasciatus): ABA02191, Tc (Tribolium castaneum): NP_001104734, Fo (Frankliniella occidentalis): BAJ41241, Dm (Drosophila melanogaster): NP_726752, Ad (Acheta domesticus): ABA02190, Bm (Bom...
Expression profiles of Pkbr isoforms identified for each of the three Pkbr copies.
A. Pkbr1 Z2. B. Pkbr1 Z4. C. Pkbr2 Z2. D. Pkbr2 Z4. E. Pkbr3 Z2.
(JPG)
Output of Student’s t-test (2-sample and unpaired) using R.
(PDF)
Protocols for RT-PCR and RACE and R analyses.
(PDF)
Phylogeny of JHAMT protein sequences obtained with MrBayes 3.2.5.
GenBank accession numbers: Acyrthosiphon pisum: NP_001156251, Aedes aegypti: EAT42177, Apis mellifera: AGG79412, Bombyx mori: NP_001036901, Drosophila melanogaster: AAF53533, Nasonia vitripennis: XP_001604463, Planococcus kraunhiae: LC055463, Samia ricini: ABE98256, Schistocerca greg...
List of primers designed for this study.
(PDF)
Sex ratio variations in Planococcus kraunhiae during oviposition.
A. Photograph of fixed and DAPI-stained embryos at oviposition, top: male embryo as evidenced by the bright, condensed paternal genome, bottom: female embryo as evidenced by homogeneous nuclei. B. Percentage of male embryos on each oviposition day. Counts were made using DAPI-stained...