Biochemical changes in developing embryos of Schistocerca gregaria (Orthoptera: Acrididae) induced by pheromone produced by ovipositing gregarious females
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Date
2015
Authors
Khamis, Fathiya M.
Mireji, Paul O.
Osir, Ellie O.
Imbuga, Mabel O.
Hassanali, Ahmed
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Abstract
Trans-generational transfer of gregarious-phase traits in the desert locust
Schistocerca gregaria (Forska°l, 1775) is mediated by primer gregarizing pheromonal signals
produced by ovipositing females that experience crowding. We monitored time-course
proteomic events in eggs from solitary-reared locusts that had been exposed for 1, 3, 5, 7,
10 and 12 days to different levels of the sand-associated gregarizing signal originating
from 0, 3, 5 or 10 ovipositions by crowd-reared females. Evidence for the phase transition
was sought by comparing the protein patterns of embryos thus exposed with those from
crowd-reared (gregarious) controls; this comparison was continued until the stage of the
first instars. Expressed proteins were analysed by two-dimensional protein gel
electrophoresis, and patterns from the different treatments within stages were compared
by profile matching and x 2 analyses. Eggs derived from crowd- and solitary-reared
females showed essentially similar protein patterns at early stages of embryogenesis;
however, mature stages (particularly, days 10 and 12) and hatchlings demonstrated
significantly different patterns. Protein patterns of eggs from solitary-reared females that
were incubated in sand contaminated with the pheromonal signal and of the hatchlings
that emerged were similar to those derived from gregarious females and dependent on
the level of the pheromone to which the embryos had been exposed. The results confirm
the gregarizing effect of the signal and constitute a useful basis for unravelling the
mechanism of the signalling cascades associated with gene expressions triggered by
the pheromone.
Description
Research paper
Keywords
Schistocerca gregaria, primer gregarizing pheromone, phase transition, 2D protein patterns
Citation
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science, page 1 of 7 doi:10.1017/S1742758415000119 q icipe 2015