Abstract
In Drosophila melanogaster, Vestigial (Vg) and Scalloped (Sd) form a transcription factor complex and play a crucial role in wing development. To extend our knowledge of insect wing formation, we isolated vg and sd homologues from two ladybird beetle species, Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata and Harmonia axyridis. Although the ladybird beetle vg homologues had only low homology with D. melanogaster vg, ectopic expression of H. vigintioctopunctata vg induced wing-like tissues in antennae and legs of D. melanogaster. Subsequent larval RNA interference (RNAi) analysis in H. vigintioctopunctata demonstrated conserved functions of vg and sd in wing development, and an unexpected novel function of sd in pupal ecdysis. Furthermore, our results can be applied to the production of a flightless ladybird beetle for biological control purposes using larval RNAi.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Amino Acid Sequence
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Animals
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Cloning, Molecular
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Coleoptera / genetics*
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Coleoptera / growth & development*
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Coleoptera / ultrastructure
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Conserved Sequence*
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DNA, Complementary / genetics
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Drosophila melanogaster / metabolism
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Flight, Animal
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Gene Expression Profiling
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Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
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Genes, Insect*
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Insect Proteins / chemistry
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Insect Proteins / genetics*
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Insect Proteins / metabolism
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Larva / growth & development
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Molecular Sequence Data
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Molting / physiology*
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Pest Control, Biological
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Phenotype
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Protein Structure, Tertiary
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Pupa / growth & development
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Pupa / ultrastructure
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RNA Interference
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Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
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Sequence Alignment
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Wings, Animal / growth & development*
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Wings, Animal / ultrastructure
Substances
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DNA, Complementary
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Insect Proteins
Associated data
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GENBANK/AB480199
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GENBANK/AB480200
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GENBANK/AB480201
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GENBANK/AB480202
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GENBANK/AB480203