Identification and characterization of circadian clock genes in the pea aphid <i>Acyrthosiphon pisum</i>

Cortes, Teresa; Ortiz‐Rivas, Benjamín; Martínez‐Torres, David

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2583.2009.00931.x

Cited by 58 publications

(104 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…SiPdp1 does not appear to oscillate in the fire ant. The expression pattern of SiVri is similar to that found for aphids [40] and is not consistent with that seen in Drosophila , where transcripts for the gene are controlled by CLK/CYC complex. A whole brain microarray analyses suggest that amVri mRNA levels do not vary during the day in both nurse and forager honey bees sampled in DD, but this finding has not been yet validated with qPCR [27].…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

The Molecular Clockwork of the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta

et al. 2012

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The circadian clock is a core molecular mechanism that allows organisms to anticipate daily environmental changes and adapt the timing of behaviors to maximize efficiency. In social insects, the ability to maintain the appropriate temporal order is thought to improve colony efficiency and fitness. We used the newly sequenced fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) genome to characterize the first ant circadian clock. Our results reveal that the fire ant clock is similar to the clock of the honeybee, a social insect with an independent evolutionary origin of sociality. Gene trees for the eight core clock genes, period, cycle, clock, cryptochrome-m, timeout, vrille, par domain protein 1 & clockwork orange, show ant species grouping closely with honeybees and Nasonia wasps as an outgroup to the social Hymenoptera. Expression patterns for these genes suggest that the ant clock functions similar to the honeybee clock, with period and cry-m mRNA levels increasing during the night and cycle and clockwork orange mRNAs cycling approximately anti-phase to period. Gene models for five of these genes also parallel honeybee models. In particular, the single ant cryptochrome is an ortholog of the mammalian-type (cry-m), rather than Drosophila-like protein (cry-d). Additionally, we find a conserved VPIFAL C-tail region in clockwork orange shared by insects but absent in vertebrates. Overall, our characterization of the ant clock demonstrates that two social insect lineages, ants and bees, share a similar, mammalian-like circadian clock. This study represents the first characterization of clock genes in an ant and is a key step towards understanding socially-regulated plasticity in circadian rhythms by facilitating comparative studies on the organization of circadian clockwork.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 61%

The Molecular Clockwork of the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta

et al. 2012

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“…However, the daily patterns (under LD conditions) of mRNA accumulation for these genes make the putative clock mechanism of D. pulex rather unusual compared with those described in other species. Three significant peaks in per transcript levels during the day in D. pulex distinguish this pattern of expression from the commonly observed unimodal or, less often, bimodal patterns of per gene transcript accumulation in the whole bodies or selected organs of insects, e.g., mosquitos (Gentile et al., ), moths and butterflies (Sauman and Reppert, ; Gvakharia et al., ; Zhu et al., ), and aphids (Cortes et al., ). The daily expression of the per gene at the mRNA level has also been analyzed in heads of the isopod Eurydice pulchra , where it showed no significant oscillations in abundance over 24 hr (Zhang et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…However, the expression of clk and cyc is approximately phase coincident in the heads of the mosquitos A. aegypti , A. gambiae , and C. quinquefasciatus , peaking in the early morning, and in foragers such as the ant Solenopsis invicta , peaking in midday (Gentile et al., ; Ptitsyn et al., ; Ingram et al., ). Nevertheless, in most analyzed species thus far, only one of these genes is rhythmically transcribed, either clk in the heads of D. melanogaster and the house fly M. domestica , peaking during the night–day transition, or cyc , which peaks in the heads of the firebrat Thermobia domestica in the evening, in the brains of A. mellifera foragers in the late night, in the heads of A. pisum in the late night, and in the optic lobes of the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus at midnight (Rubin et al., ; Codd et al., ; Cortes et al., ; Kamae et al., ; Moriyama et al., ; Uryu et al., ). Based on these observations, some authors have proposed the following three patterns of clk and cyc expression: the Drosophila ‐like pattern with rhythmic clk only, the mammalian‐like pattern with rhythmic cyc (because in mammals the transcript abundance of the cyc homologue oscillates instead of clk ), and situations similar to that shown in D. pulex with simultaneous cycling of clk and cyc mRNAs (Tomioka and Matsumoto, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Expression of the Clock Genes in the Water Flea Daphnia pulex (Crustacea: Cladocera)

et al. 2016

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The timekeeping mechanisms that operate at the core of circadian clocks (oscillators) are based on interacting molecular feedback loops consisting of clock and clock-associated genes. However, there is a lack of comprehensive studies on the expression of clock genes (particularly those forming its core) in single crustacean species at the mRNA and protein levels, and these studies could serve as a basis for constructing a model of the crustacean molecular oscillator. Studies on Daphnia pulex are well suited to fill this gap because this species is the only representative crustacean whose genome has been sequenced. We analyzed the abundance of 20 gene transcripts throughout the day in the whole bodies of D. pulex (single clone); we found that 15 of these genes were transcriptionally active, and most had daily expression level changes. According to the functional classification of their homologues in insects, these genes may represent elements of the Daphnia molecular oscillator core and its input and output pathways. Studies of PERIOD (PER) protein, one of the main clock components, revealed its rhythmic expression pattern in the epidermis, gut, and ovaries. Finally, the cycling levels of many of these clock components observed in animals reared in continuous light led to the conclusion that the Daphnia oscillator, even if it is structurally similar to the oscillators of other arthropods, can be considered a particularly important adaptive mechanism for living in environments with extreme photoperiods.

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“…in fire ants [64], pea aphids [65] and bean bugs [66]) and best described in Drosophila [36, 38, 67, 68]. VRI inhibits clk transcription, and since a dimer of CLK and CYC promotes many E-Box promoted genes, clk inhibition represses transcription of the core clock genes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic basis of allochronic differentiation in the fall armyworm

Hänniger

Dumas

Schöfl³

et al. 2017

BMC Evol Biol

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BackgroundVery little is known on how changes in circadian rhythms evolve. The noctuid moth Spodoptera frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) consists of two strains that exhibit allochronic differentiation in their mating time, which acts as a premating isolation barrier between the strains. We investigated the genetic basis of the strain-specific timing differences to identify the molecular mechanisms of differentiation in circadian rhythms.ResultsThrough QTL analyses we identified one major Quantitative trait chromosome (QTC) underlying differentiation in circadian timing of mating activity. Using RADtags, we identified this QTC to be homologous to Bombyx mori C27, on which the clock gene vrille is located, which thus became the major candidate gene. In S. frugiperda, vrille showed strain-specific polymorphisms. Also, vrille expression differed significantly between the strains, with the rice-strain showing higher expression levels than the corn-strain. In addition, RT-qPCR experiments with the other main clock genes showed that pdp1, antagonist of vrille in the modulatory feedback loop of the circadian clock, showed higher expression levels in the rice-strain than in the corn-strain.ConclusionsTogether, our results indicate that the allochronic differentiation in the two strains of S. frugiperda is associated with differential transcription of vrille or a cis-acting gene close to vrille, which contributes to the evolution of prezygotic isolation in S. frugiperda.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0911-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Identification and characterization of circadian clock genes in the pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum

Cited by 58 publications

References 79 publications

The Molecular Clockwork of the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta

The Molecular Clockwork of the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta

Temporal Expression of the Clock Genes in the Water Flea Daphnia pulex (Crustacea: Cladocera)

Genetic basis of allochronic differentiation in the fall armyworm

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