昆虫滞育表观遗传调控的研究进展

滞育是昆虫躲避不良环境的一种策略,对延续昆虫种群具有重要意义.特别是昆虫的兼性滞育,能够受环境的周期性季节变化影响,表观遗传可能在其中扮演重要角色.表观遗传是不依赖DNA序列改变所产生的可遗传变异,包括DNA、RNA、蛋白质和染色质水平上的各种表观遗传调控过程,可能参与生物的发育可塑性.昆虫滞育表观遗传调控主要包括两个...

Advances and perspectives of epigenetic regulation of insect diapause

Diapause is a strategy for insect to avoid harsh environment, and has a great significance for continuation of insect population. In particular, facultative diapause can be affected by periodic seasonal changes, in which epigenetics may play critical roles. Epigenetics refers to heritable variations independent of DNA sequence, including various modifications at DNA, RNA, protein and chromatin levels, and may be involved in development plasticity. The research of epigenetic regulation of insect diapause mainly focuses on two aspects: one is how epigenetic regulation respond to environmental signals, and the other is how environmental signal induces epigenetic regulation in insect diapause. Although it has been reported that DNA methylation can respond to photoperiodic signal and histone acetylation can be coupled with endocrine systems, the detail mechanisms of epigenetic regulations of insect diapause, however, are not completely revealed. Regulations of diapause induced by epigenetics have been reported in multiple types of insect diapause. For the same diapause process, there may be co-regulation between different epigenetic mechanisms. However, how this synergy responds to environmental signals and how it precisely regulates insect diapause are still unknown. In conclusion, the previous research only indicated the possibility of epigenetic regulation in insect diapause, but the molecular mechanisms are scarcely known and need further study. Especially the following aspects might be critical in the future research: the molecular mechanism of epigenetics responding to diapause-induced environmental signals, the molecular mechanism of epigenetics coupled with endocrine regulation, the cell signal transduction of epigenetic regulation, and the synergetic regulation of epigenetics in insect diapause.