Verification of insect metamorphosis master cells by single cell endocrinology approach

Research Project

Project/Area Number	15K14895
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Insect science
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	Iwami Masafumi 金沢大学, 自然システム学系, 教授 (40193768)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	木矢剛智金沢大学, 自然システム学系, 准教授 (90532309)
Project Period (FY)	2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2017)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,770,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥870,000) Fiscal Year 2017: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000) Fiscal Year 2016: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000) Fiscal Year 2015: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	カイコガ / 発生・分化 / 脱皮・変態 / ホルモン / 神経科学 / 遺伝子 / 神経分泌
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In the postembryonic development of insects, ecdysis is an important event for the animals to increase their body size. Timing of ecdysis is thus tightly controlled by the molting hormone ecdysone synthesized in the prothoracic glands, whose activity is regulated by prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) neurons in the brain. In the present study, we investigated neural activity pattern of PTTH neurons during development by G-GaCMP6f-mediated Ca imaging and revealed their physiological function. We also established silkmoth strains that can artificially manipulate level of neural activity by chemogenetic or optogenetic approaches. Furthermore, we established a PTTH-gene-knockout line and analyzed importance of PTTH on insect development.