Functional Analysis of a Chitinase Gene During the Larval-nymph Transition in Panonychus Citri by RNA Interference

Overview

Journal Exp Appl Acarol

Specialties Biology
Parasitology

Date 2016 Jul 9

PMID 27388447

Citations 10

Authors

Wen-Kai Xia

Xiao-Min Shen

Tian-Bo Ding

Jin-Zhi Niu

Rui Zhong

Chong-Yu Liao

Ying-Cai Feng

Wei Dou

Jin-Jun Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Chitinases are hydrolytic enzymes that are required for chitin degradation and reconstruction in arthropods. In this study, we report a cDNA sequence encoding a putative chitinase (PcCht1) from the citrus red mite, Panonychus citri. The PcCht1 (564 aa) possessed a signal peptide, a conserver domain, and a chitin-binding domain. Structural and phylogenetic analyses found that PcCht1 had high sequence similarity to chitinases in Tetranychus urticae. Real-time quantitative PCR analyses showed that the transcript levels of PcCht1 peaked periodically in larval and nymph stages. Moreover, significant increase of PcCht1 transcript level in the larvae was observed upon the exposure of diflubenzuron. In contrast, exposures of the larvae to diflubenzuron resulted in the decreased chitin content. Furthermore, through a feeding-based RNA interference approach, we were able to reduce the PcCht1 transcript level by 59.7 % in the larvae, and consequently the treated larvae showed a very low molting rate compared with the control. Our results expanded the understanding of the important role of PcCht1 in the growth and development of P. citri.

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