Gene Expression Profiles of Heat Shock Proteins 70 and 90 From Empoasca onukii (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) in Response to Temperature Stress

Abstract

Empoasca onukii Matsuda is a worldwide pest that causes great economic loss in tea growing areas and is significantly affected by temperatures. Heat shock protein (Hsp) genes are important in insects’ response to temperature stress. In this study, two full-length Hsp genes, Eohsp90 and Eohsp70, were cloned from E. onukii using rapid amplification of complementary DNA ends. The open reading frames of Eohsp90 and Eohsp70 were 2,172 bp and 2,016 bp in length, respectively. Their deduced amino acid sequences of Eohsp90 and Eohsp70 showed high homology with other species. Subsequently, the transcriptional expression of Eohsp90 and Eohsp70 in E. onukii adults exposed to various temperatures (−5, 0, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 38, 41 and 44°C) for 1 h, and at extreme temperatures (0°C and 41°C) for various time duration (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, and 120 min) were investigated via real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The relative expression levels of both Eohsp90 and Eohsp70 in E. onukii adults were upregulated as the temperature rises or falls over time, except in the −5°C or 44°C temperature groups. Moreover, the expression level in the temperature elevated groups was higher than that of the lower temperature groups. In addition, the Eohsp70 generally demonstrated a higher transcriptional level than Eohsp90, and both genes had a higher expression profile in female adults compared with the males. The expression profiles indicated that Eohsp90 and Eohsp70 may play important roles in E. onukii adult responses to ecologically relevant environmental temperature threat.

Identification, Characterization and Expression of Methuselah-Like Genes in Dastarcus helophoroides (Coleoptera: Bothrideridae)

“…The cDNA sequences were compared with the other similar mth-like genes registered in GenBank using Blastx (searching the protein database using a translated nucleotide query) [28]. The sequence alignment and identity analysis were carried out using the DNAMAN software package (Lynnon Corporation, Pointe-Claire, QC, Canada) [31]. The molecular weights and isoelectric points of predicted proteins were calculated by the SWISS-PROT (ExPASy server) program “Compute pI/Mw” [32].…”

Research Article Heat shock genes in the stingless bee <i>Melipona interrupta</i> (Hymenoptera, Meliponini)

“…HSPs have cell localization signals and the MEEVD motif that is located in the C-terminal domain is a HSP signal of cytosolic origin. Possibly, this motif binds to other co-chaperone proteins, helping protein folding (Gupta, 1995;Wang et al, 2015;Qiao et al, 2015). The MEEVD motif is also present in HSC70 and HSP70 and conserved in most of the sequences in insects .…”

“…HSP90 proteins are among the most abundant and well-conserved proteins, corresponding to 1-2% of the total proteins in a cell under normal conditions (Sun et al, 2015;Qiao et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2016). HSP90 has an important role in cell homeostasis, acting in fundamental cell activities, such as protein folding and refolding and thermal shock stress as well as other physiological functions, such as cell signaling and protein degradation (Sun et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2016).HSP90 presents two isoforms in the cell: an inducible form (HSP90A) and a constitutive form (HSP90Beta) (Sun et al, 2015).…”

“…The sequences of HSPs in insects are described and available in public genomic databases and show high homology (Lu et al, 2016;Wang et al, 2015). The number of studies describing the expression profile of these genes has grown in the last years, aiming to clarify the effects and molecular mechanisms of resistance to heat shock in different insect orders: Coleoptera (Shen et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015), Hemiptera (Qiao et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2016;Li et al, 2017), Lepidoptera (Hai-Hong et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2016), Hymenoptera (Koo et al, 2015;Willot et al, 2017), among others.…”

“…Despite presenting highly conserved sequences, the expression patterns of HSP families in insects are not the same (Zhang et al, 2016), varying between different tissues (Keshan et al, 2014;Koo et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2016) and developmental stages (Wang et al, 2015;Li et al, 2017). In addition, HSPs expressions can vary between insect genders, occurring earlier or at different temperatures (Chen et al, 2014;Qiao et al, 2015;Lu et al, 2016). These differences in gene expression show that HSPs are important for the control of insect development.…”