Cell Cycle Progression Determines Wing Morph in the Polyphenic Insect Nilaparvata lugens

Xinda Lin; Han Gao; Yili Xu; Yuwei Zhang; Yan Li; Mark D Lavine; Laura Corley Lavine

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101040

Cell Cycle Progression Determines Wing Morph in the Polyphenic Insect Nilaparvata lugens

iScience. 2020 Apr 24;23(4):101040. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101040. Epub 2020 Apr 10.

Authors

Xinda Lin¹, Han Gao², Yili Xu², Yuwei Zhang², Yan Li², Mark D Lavine³, Laura Corley Lavine³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Marine Food Quality and Hazard Controlling Technology of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China. Electronic address: linxinda@cjlu.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory of Marine Food Quality and Hazard Controlling Technology of Zhejiang Province, College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
³ Department of Entomology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6382, USA.

Abstract

Wing polyphenism is a phenomenon in which one genotype can produce two or more distinct wing phenotypes adapted to the particular environment. What remains unknown is how wing pad development is controlled downstream of endocrine signals such as insulin and JNK pathways. We show that genes important in cellular proliferation, cytokinesis, and cell cycle progression are necessary for growth and development of long wings. Wing pad cellular development of the long-winged morph was characterized by a highly structured epithelial layer with microvilli-like structures. Cells of adult short wing pads are largely in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle, whereas those of long wings are largely in G1. Our study is the first to report the comparative developmental and cellular morphology and structure of the wing morphs and to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the cell cycle genes necessary for wing development of this unique, adaptive life history strategy.

Keywords: Biological Sciences; Cell Biology; Developmental Biology; Entomology; Evolutionary Biology.