Genetic studies on juvenile hormone signalling in insect metamorphosis

• Main Author: KONOPOVÁ, Barbora
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: Czech
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-50050

This thesis consists of two published articles in both of which I am the first author, and unpublished results. My studies using RNA interference in the model beetle Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera) and non-model insects contribute to defining the core of juvenile hormone signalling in insect metamorphosis. Results of studies in Tribolium presented in my first publication identify the JH-resistance gene Methoprene-tolerant (Met) as the first known transducer of the anti-metamorphic effect of juvenile hormone; my unpublished studies on a true bug Pyrrhocoris apterus (Hemiptera) demonstrate that role of Met in metamorphosis is shared by insects with hemimetabolous and holometabolous type of metamorphosis. The second publication demonstrates that Met exerts its function by regulating the Broad-Complex (BR-C) gene, and studies in Tribolium and the lacewing Chrysopa perla (Neuroptera) show that its central role of BR-C in holometabolan metamorphosis has changed during Holometabola evolution. My unpublished results show that the gene Krüppel-homolog 1 is another Met target whose function in preventing precocious metamorphosis has been conserved between the holometabolous beetle and the hemimetabolous true bug Rhodnius prolixus.