Functional diversification process of juvenile hormone pathway through the acquisition of novel regulatory relationships

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26840122
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Evolutionary biology
• Research Institution: Utsunomiya University (2015); Okazaki Research Facilities, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (2014)
• Principal Investigator: Miyakawa Hitoshi 宇都宮大学, バイオサイエンス教育研究センター, 准教授 (30631436)
• Research Collaborator: IGUCHI Taisen ; MIYAGAWA Shinichi ; OGINO Yukiko ; HIRUTA Chizue ; TOYOTA Kenji ; SUMIYA Eri
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 幼若ホルモン / Methoprene-tolerant / 節足動物 / ミジンコ / リガンド特異性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Over the course of evolutionary time, juvenile hormone (JH) and its signaling pathway have acquired novel functions, both flexibly and repeatedly, while retaining their core roles related to the arthropod life cycle. To elucidate the process of functional diversification of JH, first, I compared the ligand selectivity of the JH receptor, Met, against four in four arthropod species (i.e., three insects: Drosophila, Aedes, Tribolium, and one crustacean: Daphnia) by performing a two-hybrid luciferase assay with Met and SRC orthologs. Obtained results suggest that the sequence structure of Met affects its ligand sensitivity. Next, I compared downstream signal cascade of Met between insect and crustacean species, and demonstrated that transcriptional activation function of Met was conserved between taxa. These findings may shed light on the relationship between functional diversification in hormonal signaling and the molecular evolution of hormone receptors.

Free Research Field

進化発生学