English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Background  The insect neuroendocrine system acts in the regulation of physiology, development and growth. Molecular evolution of this system hence has the potential to allow for major biological differences between insect groups. Two prohormone convertases,  PC1/3  and  PC2 , are found in animals and both function in the processing of neuropeptide precursors in the vertebrate neurosecretory pathway. Whereas  PC2 -function is conserved between the fly  Drosophila  and vertebrates ,  ancestral  PC1/3  was lost in the fly lineage and has not been functionally studied in any protostome.    Results  In order to understand its original functions and the changes accompanying the gene loss in the fly, we investigated  PC1/3  and  PC2  expression and function in the beetle  Tribolium castaneum.  We found that  PC2  is broadly expressed in the nervous system, whereas surprisingly,  PC1/3  expression is restricted to specific cell groups in the posterior brain and suboesophageal ganglion. Both proteases have parallel but non-redundant functions in adult beetles’ viability and fertility. Female infertility following RNAi is caused by a failure to deposit sufficient yolk to the developing oocytes. Larval RNAi against  PC2  produced moulting defects where the larvae were not able to shed their old cuticle. This ecdysis phenotype was also observed in a small subset of PC1/3 knockdown larvae and was strongest in a double knockdown. Unexpectedly, most  PC1/3 -RNAi larvae showed strongly reduced growth, but went through larval moults despite minimal to zero weight gain.    Conclusions  The cell type-specific expression of  PC1/3  and its essential requirement for larval growth highlight the important role of this gene within the insect neuroendocrine system. Genomic conservation in most insect groups suggests that it has a comparable individual function in other insects as well, which has been replaced by alternative mechanisms in flies.    Supplementary Information  The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13227-021-00179-w.

evodevo

Cell-specific expression and individual function of prohormone convertase PC1/3 in Tribolium larval growth highlights major evolutionary changes between beetle and fly neuroendocrine systems