A novel RNA helicase-like protein during early embryonic development in silkworm Bombyx mori: molecular characterization and intracellular localization

In order to understand the molecular mechanism of development during early embryogenesis in diapause and non-diapause of the silkworm, mRNA from diapause and non-diapause eggs was compared using the differential display technique. We cloned the full length of a cDNA encoding a novel RNA helicase-like (RHL) protein by the RACE method using a cDNA fragment which was one of the specific cDNAs in the non-diapause eggs. A BLAST search using the predicted amino acid sequence of RHL revealed a low homology (21–25% identity of its partial length) with that of the DEAD-box RNA helicase. Gene expression of the RHL gene of the diapause and non-diapause eggs was investigated by RT-PCR until 60 h after oviposition. Amplified RHL cDNA was observed through all the stages in the non-diapause eggs, while in the diapause eggs, cDNA was found in eggs 0–12 h after oviposition but disappeared 24–60 h after oviposition. When the diapause eggs were activated by HCl treatment after chilling at 4 °C for 6 days from 48 h after oviposition (artificial diapause termination), cDNA was observed from 12 h after HCl treatment. We also investigated the immunohistochemical distribution and localization of RHL in non-diapause eggs using anti-recombinant His-tag RHL antiserum. RHL was distributed in blastoderm cells and yolk cells and was localized in the nucleus and the cytosol of yolk cells. These data suggest that RHL has an important role in the early embryo of the silkworm.     

G protein-coupled receptor for diapause hormone, an inducer of Bombyx embryonic diapause

Bombyx diapause hormone was the first chemical substance identified as a maternal control factor that arrests offspring development. However, the molecular mechanisms by which the hormone transduces the signal to the oocyte that induces embryonic diapause immediately after mesoderm segmentation are not fully understood. Here, we describe a cDNA for a G protein-coupled diapause hormone receptor with seven transmembrane domains. Its amino-acid sequence shows a high level of similarity to the receptors of mammalian neuromedin U and insect regulatory peptide, an FXPRL-amide C-terminus. When expressed in a Xenopus oocyte system, the receptor exhibited the highest affinity (EC(50), approximately 70nM) for diapause hormone, when compared with other Bombyx FXPR/KL-amide peptides. Diapause hormone without amidation at the C-terminus, which never induces embryonic diapause in vivo, had no effect in this heterologous expression system. The mRNA is expressed in the ovaries during Bombyx pupal-adult development. These results strongly indicate that the cDNA encodes the diapause hormone receptor.     

Ecdysteroid and juvenile hormone changes in Bombyx mori eggs, related to the initiation of diapause

We describe a method for the routine determination of changes in juvenile hormone levels in insect eggs. The hormones are first converted into their diol derivatives, then they are purified from other lipids and separated by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The radioimmunoassay of the fractions was then determined. The method permits the simultaneous assay of ecdysteroids, and it was used for determining the hormonal changes in Bombyx eggs during the pre-diapause development. Our major finding is that the hormonal content of eggs dramatically increased prior to the initiation of diapause. This hormonal rise included ecdysone, 20-OH-ecdysone and 3 juvenile hormones. The HPLC retention time of the latter corresponded to JH₁ JH₂ and JH₃. Subsequently, the embryos entered diapause and the hormonal content of eggs was reduced to traces of ecdysteroids. These dramatic changes in juvenile hormone levels during early embryogenesis raise a number of issues which are developed in the discussion.     

Effects of temperature, sorbitol, alanine and diapause hormone on the embryonic development in Bombyx mori: in vitro tests of old hypotheses

Abstract.  An in vitro culture method is described in which embryonic development in Bombyx mori is traced at various temperatures and treatments. The results show that the induction, intensification and termination of diapause are distinct processes. Prediapause embryos, explanted from 40-h-old diapause-destined eggs and cultured in Grace's medium, continue to develop to the appendage-formation stage without arrest, which indicates that the isolated embryos have not entered diapause, whereas the development of embryos from diapausing eggs (15 days after being laid) is significantly slower. The rate of development of embryos dissected from diapause eggs increases during chilling (5 °C) and incubation (at 25 °C) gradually during chilling and dramatically at 25 °C. The in vitro experiments also reveal that sorbitol directly inhibits the development of embryos explanted from diapausing eggs but has no affect on the development of embryos from prediapause eggs. Neither alanine nor diapause hormone prevent isolated embryos from developing.     

Cell cycles in embryos of the silkworm,Bombyx mori: G2-arrest at diapause stage

Summary In the silkworm, Bombyx mori, diapause occurs at a specific embryonic stage, i.e. after formation of the germ band with cephalic lobes and telson and sequential mesoderm segmentation. As long as the eggs are incubated at 25° C, cell divisions and morphological development of the embryos cease. To examine changes in percentage of embryonic cells in the G₁, S and G₂ phases during embryogenesis, nuclear fractions were isolated from embryos, stained with propidium iodide and then subjected to flow cytometric analysis. The percentages of embryonic cells in G₁, S and G₂ were 10, 35 and 55%, respectively, at the stage of formation of cephalic lobes, whilst 98% of cells were in G₂ at diapause stage. After termination of diapause by acclimation at 5° C or by a combination of chilling and HCl, cell division resumed in the embryos. During this period, the cells rapidly entered S phase through G₁ from G₂, suggesting that their G₁ phase was short. In eggs in which diapause was averted by HCl-treatment after incubation at 25° C for 20 h after oviposition, embryonic development proceeded continuously for 9.5 days at 25° C until hatching. Along with this development, the G₁ fraction increased to levels of about 90%. These results indicate that embryonic cells are arrested in G₂ at diapause and suggest that, concomitant with further embryonic development, cell cycles become slower in proportion to an increasing length of G₁. Finally, most of the cells may be arrested in G₁, while there is only a small fraction of cells continuously cycling. Offprint requests to: T. Yaginuma     

Molecular mechanism of diapause in insect (I) --Expression of diapause hormone gene and incubation temperature in embryonic stage of Bombyx mori

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低温冷藏提高家蚕滞育卵NAD含量和胞质苹果酸脱氢酶活性

为了调查5℃低温处理是否改变家蚕Bombyx mori卵滞育NAD代谢, 本研究利用HPLC和分光光度法测定了经25℃和5℃分别处理的滞育卵中NADH 含量、 NAD⁺含量、 乳酸脱氢酶（LDH）活性和胞质苹果酸脱氢酶（cMDH）活性。结果表明： 5℃处理的NAD（NADH + NAD⁺）含量和cMDH活性分别增加了106%和53%, 并且显著高于25℃处理（P< 0.01）; 但是两种处理的NADH/NAD⁺比值和LDH活性没有显著差异（P> 0.05）。据此推测, 5℃低温处理加强了家蚕滞育卵NAD⁺合成和再生能力。     

细菌表达dsRNA介导的家蚕FTZ-F1基因的RNA干扰

为探索细菌表达目标基因dsRNA介导的RNAi技术是否在家蚕Bombyx mori可行, 本研究引入了在其他物种中广泛应用的细菌表达dsRNA的RNAi系统: HT115细菌株和L4440质粒。利用L4440载体两端含有T7启动子的特点, 设计并构建了针对家蚕核受体FTZ-F1基因的RNA干扰（RNA interference）载体, 将构建好的质粒转入大肠杆菌Escherichia coli HT115, 在IPTG诱导下成功获得目标基因对应双链RNA（dsRNA）。 结果显示: 通过对5龄第7天家蚕幼虫注射IPTG诱导后提取的FTZ F1基因对应的dsRNA 25 μg, 85%的蛹变态发育过程明显延迟, 不能实现幼虫到蛹的形态完全转变。荧光定量PCR分析显示目标基因的表达得到了特异的抑制。实验结果初步表明, 通过细菌表达目标基因dsRNA介导的RNAi策略, 以其经济、高效的特点, 具有广泛应用于家蚕基因功能研究中的潜力。     

The wingless gene is required for embryonic brain development in Drosophila

 We have studied the role of the wingless gene in embryonic brain development of Drosophila. wingless is expressed in a large domain in the anlage of the protocerebrum and also transiently in smaller domains in the anlagen of the deutocerebrum and tritocerebrum. Elimination of the wingless gene in null mutants has dramatic effects on the developing protocerebrum; although initially generated, approximately one half of the protocerebrum is deleted in wingless null mutants by apoptotic cell death at late embryonic stages. Using temperature sensitive mutants, a rescue of the mutant phenotype can be achieved by stage-specific expression of functional wingless protein during embryonic stages 9–10. This time period correlates with that of neuroblast specification but preceeds the generation and subsequent loss of protocerebral neurons. Ectopic wingless over-expression in gain-of-function mutants results in dramatically oversized CNS. We conclude that wingless is required for the development of the anterior protocerebral brain region in Drosophila. We propose that an important role of wingless in this part of the developing brain is the determination of neural cell fate. Received: 7 October 1997 / Accepted: 30 December 1997     

Identification and characterization of the diuretic hormone 31 receptor in the silkworm Bombyx mori

The receptor for diuretic hormone 31 (DH31R) was identified in the silkworm Bombyx mori. A heterologous expression system revealed that an orphan G-protein coupled receptor, BNGR-B1, responded to DH31 and upregulated the intracellular cAMP level. DH31R (BNGR-B1) was predominantly expressed in the anterior silk gland, midgut, and ovary, whereas DH31 was predominantly expressed in the central nervous system and midgut.     

Changes in the activities of aldolase and other enzymes for carbohydrate metabolism during embryonic and postembryonic development of Bombyx mori

Eggs at the early stages of embryogenesis and the larval fat body in Bombyx mori were confirmed to have an aldolase (ALD) isozyme type S. Its activity ratio with substrates fructose 1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) and fructose 1-phosphate (F1P) was 3. This isozyme was considered to be in favor of rather efficient utilization of F1P, since eggs in early stages of embryogenesis and the fat body had high activities of NADP-sorbitol dehydrogenase (NADP-SDH) and NAD-sorbitol dehydrogenase (NAD-SDH) responsible for the polyol pathway generating F1P. On the other hand, eggs at the second half of embryogenesis and the larval and adult muscle (plus epidermal cells and cuticle) possessed an ALD isozyme type F, whose FBP/F1P activity ratio was 10, suggesting that F1P utilization is less effective. This is in agreement with the fact that the NADP-SDH and NAD-SDH activities were low and the phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity was high in eggs at these stages and in muscle. Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 36:139–148, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

家蚕细胞中过表达家蚕核型多角体病毒核衣壳蛋白VP39抑制BmNPV的增殖

【目的】家蚕Bombyx mori核型多角体病毒（BmNPV）核衣壳蛋白VP39为病毒装配所必需。本研究旨在初探VP39在病毒侵染家蚕细胞过程中的功能及特征,以期为家蚕抗病毒研究提供研究基础。【方法】本研究通过构建原核表达载体,诱导原核表达得到多克隆抗体,以Western blot验证VP39表达时相;构建真核表达载体,转染细胞后以免疫荧光手段观测VP39表达定位及影响病毒增殖现象。【结果】制备了VP39多克隆抗体。VP39在病毒感染后大量定位于家蚕细胞核,部分定位于胞质,而过表达的VP39定位于家蚕细胞胞质;过表达VP39后抑制BmNPV感染家蚕细胞。【结论】在BmN-SWU1细胞中过表达VP39会影响BmNPV的扩散,导致BmNPV感染细胞数目大量减少。该结果为VP39调控宿主与病毒的相互作用提供了新的思路。     

Expression of chLIS1, a chicken homolog of LIS1

We have isolated the chicken LIS1 homolog, chLIS1, with DNA sequence similarity of over 68% to the human cDNA and 99% amino acid identity. Additionally, we describe the pattern of chLIS1 expression in the chicken embryo. The early embryonic expression is highly specific to the developing nervous system, whereas later the expression is more widespread. Received: 16 February 1999 / Accepted: 30 March 1999