Topic: Regulation of Insect Diapause
Subject: Insect Physiology
Visiting Time: Oct 18 - 25, 2009

Abstract:

Insect development is highly seasonal. Usually, only a few months each year are suitable for continuous development and reproduction. The remainder of the year (9-10 months in many cases) is spent in a form of developmental arrest referred to as diapause. The short daylength of early autumn is the dominant environmental cue regulating the onset of this developmental arrest. The diapause program initiates not only an arrest in development, but also metabolic suppression, conservation of water, storage of fat reserves, and elevated stress tolerance. This presentation will provide a brief overview of insect diapause, discuss some of the major genes that associated with diapause, and then focus in more detail on the overwintering diapause of the mosquito, Culex pipiens, the vector of West Nile virus. Recent work points to an important role for insulin signaling in regulating this diapause. RNAi experiments suggest that one of the insulin-like peptides, ILP-1, is especially important as a regulator of diapause in this species, and FOXO, a transcription factor downstream of insulin plays a critical role in the fat accumulation associated with diapause. Mounting evidence suggests that the insulin signaling pathway may be a component common to diapause in many species.

Further Information: David L. Denlinger...

Prof. David L. Denlinger