Molecular Mechanism of Insect Metamorphosis: Action of Insulin-related Peptide

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22380034
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied entomology
• 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): KIYA Taketoshi 金沢大学, 自然システム学系, 特任助教 (90532309)
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 昆虫 / 脱皮・変態 / 発生・分化 / 脳・神経 / ホルモン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Insect brain plays central role during the development by orchestrating hormone production and processing information of internal and external factors. An insulin family peptide, bombyxin, is one of the hormones regulating growth, metabolism, and reproduction, but its function still remains obscure. (1) We analyzed the full silkmoth genome and identified five novel bombyxin families with their genomic organization and chromosomal location. (2) We indicated that the dietary carbohydrates hydrolyzing activity remained high throughout the last larval period and decreased to negligible levels until the pupal period and that the activity is developmentally regulated by ecdysone.
To elucidate the brain function at the neural circuit level, we intended to visualize neural circuit underlying sex pheromone-induced innate behavior. (3) We established strains in which we could visualize neural projections and cell nucleus positions that were reliably labeled with GFP after pheromone stimulation.

Free Research Field

昆虫分子生物学