Screening of Reference Genes for Expression Analysis in the Study of Soldier Caste Differentiation of Formosan Subterranean Termite Shiraki

Overview

Journal PeerJ

Specialties Biology
Environmental Health
General Medicine

Date 2019 Nov 14

PMID 31720111

Citations 3

Authors

He Du

Wenjing Wu

Xueyi Huang

Zhiqiang Li

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The Formosan subterranean termite, Shiraki, is a serious pest worldwide. Juvenile hormone analog (and its analogs such as methoprene) can induce the transformation of the worker caste into soldier caste in . However, several factors, such as feeding substrate and colony origin, influence the proportion of solider formation. The molecular mechanism of worker to soldier transformation of is still not clear. RT-qPCR is a powerful tool for molecular studies. Accurate gene quantification by the relative quantification method requires a stable expressed gene as the reference gene. However, no reference genes were available for this species in the methoprene bioassay. To study the problem of gene response to methoprene by RT-qPCR we have to first screen reference genes in . Workers were fed with methoprene. Termites were collected during the methoprene bioassay and separated into head and thorax+abdomen. Expression profiles of 10 candidate reference genes in the two body part types were investigated using RT-qPCR. The results were analyzed by a set of established methods (geNorm, NormFinder, BestKeeper, and RefFinder) as well as comparative ΔCt method. Our results suggest that RPS18 is the most stably-expressed gene both in the head and thorax+abdomen for expression analysis in the methoprene bioassay of . The screening of suitable reference genes in establishes the foundation for the molecular study of soldier caste differentiation in this species.

Citing Articles

Screening of reference genes for microRNA analysis in the study of solider caste differentiation of Formosan subterranean termite Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki.

Du H, Huang R, Chen D, Huang C, Zhang H, Lia Z Sci Rep. 2023; 13(1):9399.

PMID: 37296242 PMC: 10256727. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35926-7.

Molecular characterization and expression variation of the odorant receptor co-receptor in the Formosan subterranean termite.

Castillo P, Husseneder C, Sun Q PLoS One. 2022; 17(4):e0267841.

PMID: 35482814 PMC: 9049313. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0267841.

Methoprene-Induced Genes in Workers of Formosan Subterranean Termites ( Shiraki).

Du H, Tong R, Huang X, Liu B, Huang R, Li Z Insects. 2020; 11(2).

PMID: 31973177 PMC: 7074503. DOI: 10.3390/insects11020071.

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