Molecular mechanisms regulating hypermetamorphosis in insects

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K07797
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Research Field	Insect science
Research Institution	Minami Kyusyu University
Principal Investigator	Shintani Yoshinori 南九州大学, 環境園芸学部, 教授(移行) (50389574)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	神村学国立研究開発法人農業生物資源研究所, その他部局等, 主任研究員 (60370649)
Research Collaborator	NAGAMINE Keisuke 南九州大学, 環境園芸学部 (20817548) TERAO Misato 南九州大学, フィールドセンター, 大学技能職員 (30796610)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,940,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,140,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥2,730,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥630,000)
Keywords	昆虫 / 過変態 / マメハンミョウ / 転写因子 / 遺伝子発現 / 分子機構 / 幼若ホルモン / 適応的意義 / 光周性 / 擬蛹 / 休眠 / 蛹化 / 脱皮
Outline of Final Research Achievements	Insects undergo metamorphosis in their life cycles. They undergo a few times of ecdysis but their general shapes do not change upon ecdydsis. However, in holometabolous insects, which have the pupal stage, there are several insects that undergo hypermetamorphosis, in which the shages change drastically upon ecdysis. The bean blister beetle, Epicauta gorhami, is one such insect and its larva becames a pseudopupa (characteristic to the hypermetamorphosis in Meloidae) in the 5th instar. In holometabolous insects in genaral, juvenile hormone (JH) and Kr-h1, eraly response gene, suppress the pupation. We have found in the present study that pseudopupation is also suppressed by a JH/Kr-h1 system.