A new neuropeptide insect parathyroid hormone iPTH in the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum.
PLoS Genet. 2020-05-04; 16(5): e1008772
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1008772
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Xie J(1)(2), Sang M(1), Song X(1), Zhang S(1), Kim D(2)(3), Veenstra JA(4), Park
Y(2), Li B(1).
Author information:
(1)Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life
Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
(2)Department of Entomology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, United
States of America.
(3)Department of Applied Biology, Kyungpook National University, Sangju, Korea.
(4)INCIA UMR 5287 CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Pessac, France.
In the postgenomics era, comparative genomics have advanced the understanding of
evolutionary processes of neuropeptidergic signaling systems. The evolutionary
origin of many neuropeptidergic signaling systems can be traced date back to
early metazoan evolution based on the conserved sequences. Insect parathyroid
hormone receptor (iPTHR) was previously described as an ortholog of vertebrate
PTHR that has a well-known function in controlling bone remodeling. However,
there was no sequence homologous to PTH sequence in insect genomes, leaving the
iPTHR as an orphan receptor. Here, we identified the authentic ligand insect PTH
(iPTH) for the iPTHR. The taxonomic distribution of iPTHR, which is lacking in
Diptera and Lepidoptera, provided a lead for identifying the authentic ligand. We
found that a previously described orphan ligand known as PXXXamide (where X is
any amino acid) described in the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis has a similar
taxonomic distribution pattern as iPTHR. Tests of this peptide, iPTH, in
functional reporter assays confirmed the interaction of the ligand-receptor pair.
Study of a model beetle, Tribolium castaneum, was used to investigate the
function of the iPTH signaling system by RNA interference followed by RNA
sequencing and phenotyping. The results suggested that the iPTH system is likely
involved in the regulation of cuticle formation that culminates with a phenotype
of defects in wing exoskeleton maturation at the time of adult eclosion.
Moreover, RNAi of iPTHRs also led to significant reductions in egg numbers and
hatching rates after parental RNAi.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors have declared that no competing
interests exist.