Developmental genes related to parthenogenesis revealed sinusoidal pattern of gene-expression in mustard aphid Lipaphis erysimi Bhatt Deepa, Duhlian Lianthanzauva, Koramutla Murali Krishna, Dhatwalia Deepa, Tamta Sushma2, Subramanian S.3, Bhattacharya Ramcharan1,* ICAR-National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology Indian Agricultural Research Institute Campus, New Delhi, 110012 1Department of Biotechnology, Kumaun University, Nainital, 263001 2Department of Botany, Kumaun University, Nainital, 263001 3Department of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, 110012 *Corresponding author Email: rcbhattacharya1@gmail.com
Online published on 5 February, 2019. Abstract Mustard aphid, Lipaphis erysimi (Kalt.) is a major insect pest of rapeseed-mustard group of crops. The economic importance of this has prompted fundamental research on it including gene expression and gene silencing studies. To identify key genes regulating parthenogenetic reproduction, gene-expression pattern of five developmental genes have been studied across three developmental stages namely, nymph, third instar and adult. All the five genes showed a constitutive basal level as well as significant up-or down-regulation over and above the basal level, across the developmental stages. While LeENDO, LeSTRN and LeFAS genes showed decrease in gene expression as the insect matures to parthenogenetic mother; and LeRNH and LeSNIV showed continuous increase in transcript level peaking in alate mother. Interestingly, all the genes followed a sinusoidal pattern of gene-expression either directly or inversely related to progression of developmental stages from newborn nymph to adult parthenogenetic mother in L. erysimi. In addition, a phylogenetic analysis of these genes revealed extent of resemblance and divergence of the gene sequences with their homologs from other insects including aphid species and pollinators. Top Keywords Lipaphis erysimi, mustard, developmental stages, nymph, third instar, adult, alate mother, aphid parthenogenesis, gene-expression, developmental genes. Top |