Orcokinin neuropeptides regulate ecdysis in the hemimetabolous insect Rhodnius prolixus

SHEILA ONS; PIETER VAN WIELENDAELE; IVANA SIERRA; FLAVIO FRANCINI; MICHEL HOLTOF; WULFF JUAN PEDRO; FLAVIO FRANCINI; MICHEL HOLTOF; WULFF JUAN PEDRO; JOZEF VANDEN BROECK; MARCOS STERKEL; JOZEF VANDEN BROECK; MARCOS STERKEL; SHEILA ONS; PIETER VAN WIELENDAELE; IVANA SIERRA

INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 p. 91 - 102

0965-1748

To grow and develop insects must undergo ecdysis. During this process, the individual sheds the old cuticle to emergeas the following developmental stage. During ecdysis, different programed behaviors are regulated by neuropeptidergicpathways. In general, components of these pathways are better characterized in crustacean and holometabolous insectsthan in hemimetabola. In insects, the orkoninin gene produces two different neuropeptide precursors by alternative splicing:orcokinin A and orcokinin B. Although orcokinins are well conserved in insect species, their physiological role remainselusive. Here we describe a new splicing variant of the orcokinin gene in the hemimetabolous triatomine Rhodniusprolixus. We further analyze the expression pattern and the function of the alternatively spliced RhoprOK transcripts bymeans of immunohistochemistry and RNAi-mediated gene silencing. Our results indicate that orkoninis play an essentialrole in the peptidergic signaling pathway regulating ecdysis in the hemimetabolous insect Rhodnius prolixus.