Biological and biochemical characterization of a red‐eye mutant in Nilaparvata lugens （Hemiptera: Delphacidae）

Abstract

A red-eye colony was established in our laboratory in brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), a major rice pest in Asia. Except for the red-eye phenotype, no other differences were observed between the wild-type (brown eye) and the mutant-type (red eye) in external characters. Genetic analysis revealed that the red-eye phenotype was controlled by a single autosomal recessive allele. Biological studies found that egg production and egg viability in the red-eye mutant colony were not significantly different from those in the wild-type BPH. Biochemical analysis and electronic microscopy examination revealed that the red-eye mutants contained decreased levels of both xanthommatin (brown) and pteridine (red) and reduced number of pigment granules. Thus, the changes of amount and ratio of the two pigments is the biochemical basis of this red-eye mutation. Our results indicate that the red-eye mutant gene (red) might be involved in one common gene locus shared by the two pigments in pigment transportation, pigment granule formation or some other processes.

Chromosomal Location of a Recessive Red-Eye Mutant Gene in the Brown Planthopper <i>Nilaparvata lugens</i> (Stål) (Insecta: Hemiptera)

“…The sex ratio in the offspring produced from most crosses was equal based on a chi-square test analysis (Table 1). These results suggest that the inheritance of the red eye mutant phenotype is controlled by a single autosomal recessive gene same as the previous findings [2] [3].…”

“…The biological and biochemical characterizations of eye color in BPH mutants have been described. The mating behavior, egg production, developmental duration and mortality of nymphal stages were not significantly different between the normal-eyed and colored-eye mutant colonies [2] [3]. However, some phenotypes (i.e., egg lethal effect, poor fecundity and survival ability) might be related to the eye color mutations [3] [5].…”

“…The BPH has a diploid chromosome number of 30 (28 autosomes combined with the sex determination system XY and XX in males and females, respectively) [1]. Among the few visible mutations in the BPH, eye color is one of the mutations that are regularly observed in laboratories [2] [3]. In Delphacidae, red-eyed mutants were reported in the small brown planthopper Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén) [4] and BPH [5].…”

“…Xanthommatin (the pigment causing brown eye color) and pteridine (the pigment causing red eye color) are two primary forms of the pigments. Reduction of pigment granules and pigment concentrations is the biochemical basis of the red eye phenotype in the BPH [2]. It is believed that mutations in genes common to both pigments caused a reduction of both pigments [7] [8].…”

karmoisin and cardinal ortholog genes participate in the ommochrome synthesis of Nilaparvata lugens (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)

“…The brown planthopper (BPH), N. lugens, is a hemimetabolism insect and a notorious rice pest in East Asian countries (Cheng, 2009). The wild-type compound eye color of BPH is brown, while red-eye color mutation phenotype can also be observed (Seo et al, 2011;Liu et al, 2014). In order to clarify the ommochrome synthesis pathway of this insect pest, we cloned and characterized the cardinal ortholog gene from BPH.…”