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Functional analysis of the circadian clock gene timeless in Tribolium castaneum
Author(s) -
Li ChengJun,
Yun XiaoPei,
Yu XiaoJuan,
Li Bin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
insect science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1744-7917
pISSN - 1672-9609
DOI - 10.1111/1744-7917.12441
Subject(s) - timeless , biology , gene knockdown , circadian rhythm , rna interference , circadian clock , oscillating gene , gene silencing , clock , period (music) , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , gene expression , genetics , endocrinology , rna , physics , acoustics
Abstract Circadian rhythms are endogenous oscillations with a period of about 24 h driven by a circadian clock. So far, variable oscillators have been found in insects. To explore the circadian clock of Tribolium castaneum , we cloned the clock gene timeless ( Tctimeless ). Its open reading frame is 3240 bp in length and consists of 10 exons. Tctimeless is highly expressed in the late pupal stage. Tissue‐specific expression analysis in late adult stages revealed high expression of Tctimeless in the head, epidermis, fat body and accessory glands. Silencing of Tctimeless by RNA interference (RNAi) at the late larval stages caused a failure to initiate eclosion. Tctimeless knockdown in late pupal stages led to a gender‐independent decline in egg production and progeny survival. As a core clock gene, Tctimeless exhibited one expression peak in the middle of the circadian day. Knockdown of Tctimeless disrupted daily expression patterns of Tccycle , Tcclock , Tcperiod and itself, while Tctimeless and Tcperiod expression patterns over the circadian day were also perturbed when Tccycle or Tcclock is suppressed by RNAi. This study identified a complex transcriptional relationship among circadian clock genes in T. castaneum .