Characterization of an allatotropin-like peptide receptor in the red flour beetle,Tribolium castaneum, and its homologue in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria
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1
Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
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2
Ohio University, United States
Following a reverse pharmacology approach, we identified an allatotropin-like peptide receptor (ATR) in Tribolium castaneum. Allatotropins are multifunctional neuropeptides initially isolated from the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. They have been shown to be myoactive, to be cardio-acceleratory, to inhibit active ion transport, to stimulate juvenile hormone production and release and to be involved in the photic entrainment of the circadian clock. A tissue distribution analysis of the T. castaneum ATR by means of qRT-PCR revealed a prominent sexual dimorphism, the transcript levels being significantly higher in the male fat body and reproductive system. The endogenous ligand of the receptor, Trica-ATL, is able to increase the frequency and tonus of contractions in the gut and in the reproductive tract of mature red flour beetles (Vuerinckx et al., 2011).
An homologous receptor was found in the EST-database of Schistocerca gregaria, which made a more thorough tissue distribution and additional experiments possible.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the Interuniversity Attraction Poles programs (Belgian Science Policy Grant (P6/14)), the Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO-Flanders G.0405.09) and the K.U. Leuven Research Foundation (GOA/11/02) for financial support.
References
Vuerinckx, K., Verlinden, H., Lindemans, M., Vanden Broeck, J., Huybrechts, R. (2011). Characterization of an allatotropin-like peptide receptor in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Insect Biochem. Mol. Biol. DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2011.06.003.
Keywords:
allatotropin,
GPCR,
invertebrate,
orexin,
Starvation
Conference:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology, Ann Arbor, United States, 13 Jul - 16 Jul, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster
Topic:
Membrane receptors
Citation:
Verlinden
H,
Vuerinckx
K,
Horodyski
F,
Vandersmissen
H,
Vanden Broeck
J and
Huybrechts
R
(2011). Characterization of an allatotropin-like peptide receptor in the red flour beetle,Tribolium castaneum, and its homologue in the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria.
Front. Endocrinol.
Conference Abstract:
NASCE 2011: The inaugural meeting of the North American Society for Comparative Endocrinology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fendo.2011.04.00050
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Received:
05 Jul 2011;
Published Online:
09 Aug 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Heleen Verlinden, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, heleen.verlinden@bio.kuleuven.be