Molecular characterization, spatial‐temporal expression and magnetic response patterns of iron‐sulfur cluster assembly1 (IscA1) in the rice planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens

• Published in: Insect science 2019-06, Vol.26 (3), p.413-423
• Main Authors: Xu, Jing‐Jing, Zhang, Ying‐Chao, Wu, Jian‐Qi, Wang, Wei‐Hong, Li, Yue, Wan, Gui‐Jun, Chen, Fa‐Jun, Sword, Gregory A., Pan, Wei‐Dong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Amino acids; Assembly; Binding sites; Clusters; cryptochrome; Developmental stages; Gene expression; Geomagnetic field; Geomagnetism; Insect migration; Insects; Iron; iron‐sulfur cluster assembly1; magnetic field; Magnetic fields; Magnetite; Migration; migratory; Molecular weight; Nilaparvata lugens; Organic chemistry; Phylogeny; Proteins; Sulfur; Thorax; Tissues
• ISSN: 1672-9609; 1744-7917
• DOI: 10.1111/1744-7917.12546

The mechanisms of magnetoreception have been proposed as the magnetite‐based, the chemical radical‐pair and biocompass model, in which magnetite particles, the cryptochrome (Cry) or iron‐sulfur cluster assembly 1 (IscA1) may be involved. However, little is known about the association among the molecules. Here we investigated the molecular characterization and the mRNA expression of IscA1 in different developmental stages, tissues and magnetic fields in the migratory brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens. NlIscA1 contains an open reading frame of 390 bp, encoding amino acids of 129, with the predicted molecular weight of 14.0 kDa and the isoelectric point of 9.10. Well‐conserved Fe‐S cluster binding sites were observed in the predicted protein. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated NlIscA1 to be clustered into the insect's IscA1. NlIscA1 showed up‐regulated mRNA expression during the period of migration. The mRNA expression of NlIscA1 could be detected in all the three tissues of head, thorax and abdomen, with the highest expression level in the abdomen. For the macropterous migratory Nilaparvata lugens, mRNA expression of NlIscA1 and N. lugens cryptochrome1 (Nlcry1) were up‐regulated under the magnetic fields of 5 Gauss and 10 Gauss in strength (vs. local geomagnetic field), while N. lugens cryptochrome2 (Nlcry2) remained stable. For the brachyterous non‐migratory Nilaparvata lugens, no significant changes were found in mRNA expression of NlIscA1, Nlcry1 and Nlcry2 among different magnetic fields. These findings preliminarily reveal that the expression of NlIscA1 and Nlcry1 exhibited coordinated responses to the magnetic field. It suggests some potential associations among the putative magneto‐sensitive molecules of cryptochrome and iron‐sulfur cluster assembly.