Neuropeptides in the regulation of the ecdysis innate behavior in the kissing bug Rhodnius prolixus

ONS SHEILA

Montevideo

Congreso; International Congress on Neuroethology; 2016

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; direction: ltr; line-height: 120%; text-align: justify; }Introduction:At the end of each developmental stage,insects and other Ecdysozoans perform a sequence of stereotypedinnate behaviors culminating in ecdysis. These behaviors areaccurately regulated by neuropeptides; the major components of thepeptidergic signaling networks controlling ecdysis are Corazonin,Ecdysis Hormone, Eclosion Hormone, and Crustacean CardioactivePeptide. However, these regulatory pathways are much bettercharacterized in holometabola than in hemimetabola. Orcokinins aremembers of the ?basal neuropeptide set? found in every insectspecies analyzed until now, even though their physiological functionwas not well determined to date. Our results indicate a central roleof Orcokinin neuropeptides in the regulation of ecdysis behavior inthe Chagas? disease vector Rhodniusprolixus. Methods:We used RNAi technique to silence theexpression of neuropeptide Orcokinins and other components of thepeptidergic pathways controlling ecdysis in Rhodniusprolixus.We used immunohistochemistry and/or qRT-PCR in order to study theexpression pattern of these genes in different tissues and throughoutthe days from blood feeding until ecdysis. Results/Conclusion:Our results indicate that Orcokininsare central components of the peptidergic network regulating ecdysisin Rhodnius prolixus;they control ecdysis behavior and the expression of classicalecdysis-related hormones. Together with previous data, the resultspoint to a conserved role of Orcokinins in the regulation of innatebehaviors in insects.