FoxO and rotund form a binding complex governing wing polyphenism in planthoppers
Sun-Jie Chen,
Jin-Li Zhang,
Wen-Jing Ma,
Hui-Jie Wu,
Yang Li,
Xing-Xing Shen,
Hai-Jun Xu
Affiliations
Sun-Jie Chen
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jin-Li Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Wen-Jing Ma
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Hui-Jie Wu
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yang Li
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Xing-Xing Shen
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China
Hai-Jun Xu
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University; 866 Yu-Hang-Tang Avenue, Hangzhou 310058, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Wing polyphenism is found in a variety of insects and offers an attractive model system for studying the evolutionary significance of dispersal. The Forkhead box O (FoxO) transcription factor (TF) acts as a wing-morph switch that directs wing buds developing into long-winged (LW) or short-winged morphs in wing-dimorphic planthoppers, yet the regulatory mechanism of the FoxO module remains elusive. Here, we identified the zinc finger TF rotund as a potential wing-morph regulator via transcriptomic analysis and phenotypic screening in the brown plathopper, Nilaparvata lugens. RNA interference-mediated knockdown of rotund antagonized the LW development derived from in the context of FoxO depletion or the activation of the insulin/insulin-like growth factor signaling cascade, reversing long wings into intermediate wings. In vitro binding assays indicated that rotund physically binds to FoxO to form the FoxO combinatorial code. These findings broaden our understanding of the complexity of transcriptional regulation governing wing polyphenism in insects.
