Tyrosine hydroxylase is required for cuticle sclerotization and pigmentation in Tribolium castaneum

Gorman, Maureen J.; Arakane, Yasuyuki

doi:10.1016/j.ibmb.2010.01.004

Cited by 106 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Of these, pale, yellow, and Ddc are previously known as melanin-promoting factors. CRISPR-induced knockouts in these three genes produced melanin repression phenotypes in accordance with expectations from Drosophila (Morgan 1916;Wright et al 1976a;True et al 1999;Wittkopp et al 2002b) and other insects including P. xuthus (Futahashi and Fujiwara 2005), Manduca sexta (Gorman et al 2007), Bombyx mori (Futahashi et al 2008;Liu et al 2010), Tribolium castaneum (Gorman and Arakane 2010), and Oncopeltus fasciatus (Liu et al 2016). Our findings support the idea that pale, yellow, and Ddc play deeply conserved roles in insect melanin pigmentation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Genetic Basis of Melanin Pigmentation in Butterfly Wings

et al. 2017

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Despite the variety, prominence, and adaptive significance of butterfly wing patterns, surprisingly little is known about the genetic basis of wing color diversity. Even though there is intense interest in wing pattern evolution and development, the technical challenge of genetically manipulating butterflies has slowed efforts to functionally characterize color pattern development genes. To identify candidate wing pigmentation genes, we used RNA sequencing to characterize transcription across multiple stages of butterfly wing development, and between different color pattern elements, in the painted lady butterfly Vanessa cardui. This allowed us to pinpoint genes specifically associated with red and black pigment patterns. To test the functions of a subset of genes associated with presumptive melanin pigmentation, we used clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 genome editing in four different butterfly genera. pale, Ddc, and yellow knockouts displayed reduction of melanin pigmentation, consistent with previous findings in other insects. Interestingly, however, yellow-d, ebony, and black knockouts revealed that these genes have localized effects on tuning the color of red, brown, and ochre pattern elements. These results point to previously undescribed mechanisms for modulating the color of specific wing pattern elements in butterflies, and provide an expanded portrait of the insect melanin pathway.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Genetic Basis of Melanin Pigmentation in Butterfly Wings

et al. 2017

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“…be involved, considering that it is actively transported to the procuticle from the hemolymph (Asano and Ashida, 2001), may play a non-essential role in some cuticle pigmentation (Gorman and Arakane, 2010), and is generally found to be in greater abundance in darker individuals (Wilson et al, 2001;Fedorka et al, 2013b). Furthermore, natural and artificial selection for darker cuticles tends to result in increased PO abundance (Armitage and Siva-Jothy, 2005;Fedorka et al, 2013b).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermoregulatory strategy may shape immune investment inDrosophila melanogaster

Kutch

Sevgili

Wittman

et al. 2014

Journal of Experimental Biology

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As temperatures change, insects alter the amount of melanin in their cuticle to improve thermoregulation. However, melanin is also central to insect immunity, suggesting that thermoregulatory strategy may indirectly impact immune defense by altering the abundance of melanin pathway components (a hypothesis we refer to as thermoregulatory-dependent immune investment). This may be the case in the cricket Allonemobius socius, where warm environments (both seasonal and geographical) produced crickets with lighter cuticles and increased pathogen susceptibility. Unfortunately, the potential for thermoregulatory strategy to influence insect immunity has not been widely explored. Here we address the relationships between temperature, thermoregulatory strategy and immunity in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. To this end, flies from two separate Canadian populations were reared in either a summer-or autumnlike environment. Shortly after adult eclosion, flies were moved to a common environment where their cuticle color and susceptibility to a bacterial pathogen (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were measured. As with A. socius, individuals from summer-like environments exhibited lighter cuticles and increased pathogen susceptibility, suggesting that the thermoregulatory-immunity relationship is evolutionarily conserved across the hemimetabolous and holometabolous clades. If global temperatures continue to rise as expected, then thermoregulation might play an important role in host infection and mortality rates in systems that provide critical ecosystem services (e.g. pollination), or influence the prevalence of insect-vectored disease (e.g. malaria).

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“…Laccase 2 (one of the tyrosinases in T. castaneum ) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) are two key enzymes that control cuticle sclerotization processes in T. castaneum (Arakane et al, 2005; Gorman and Arakane, 2010). In our microarray analysis, we only detected a decrease in TcLac2 mRNA levels in Tcrk RNAi insects, whereas the mRNA levels of TcLac1 and TcTH did not change between Tcrk RNAi and control insects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional characterization of bursicon receptor and genome-wide analysis for identification of genes affected by bursicon receptor RNAi

Bai

Palli

2010

Developmental Biology

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Bursicon is an insect neuropeptide hormone that is secreted from the central nervous system into the hemolymph and initiates cuticle tanning. The receptor for bursicon is encoded by the rickets (rk) gene and belongs to the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily. The bursicon and its receptor regulate cuticle tanning as well as wing expansion after adult eclosion. However, the molecular action of bursicon signaling remains unclear. We utilized RNA interference (RNAi) and microarray to study the function of the bursicon receptor (Tcrk) in the model insect, Tribolium castaneum. The data included here showed that in addition to cuticle tanning and wing expansion reported previously, Tcrk is also required for development and expansion of integumentary structures and adult eclosion. Using custom microarrays, we identified 24 genes that are differentially expressed between Tcrk RNAi and control insects. Knockdown in the expression of one of these genes, TC004091, resulted in the arrest of adult eclosion. Identification of genes that are involved in bursicon receptor mediated biological processes will provide tools for future studies on mechanisms of bursicon action.

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Tyrosine hydroxylase is required for cuticle sclerotization and pigmentation in Tribolium castaneum

Cited by 106 publications

References 25 publications

Genetic Basis of Melanin Pigmentation in Butterfly Wings

Genetic Basis of Melanin Pigmentation in Butterfly Wings

Thermoregulatory strategy may shape immune investment inDrosophila melanogaster

Functional characterization of bursicon receptor and genome-wide analysis for identification of genes affected by bursicon receptor RNAi

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