Molecular Disruption of Ion Transport Peptide Receptor Results in Impaired Water Homeostasis and Developmental Defects in Bombyx mori

• DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00424
• Publication Date: 2020-05-20T05:02:29Z
• Authors: Lili Sun; Zhongjie Zhang; Ru Zhang; Ye Yu; Fangying Yang; Anjiang Tan
• Keywords: Bombyx

Insect ion transport peptides (ITPs) are important regulators of many physiological processes and they exert their functions by interacting with receptors (ITPRs). However, no such ITPRs have been identified in the model insect Drosophila melanogaster, therefore roles insects poorly understood. In current study, we comprehensively investigated ITPR lepidopteran insect, silkworm (Bombyx mori), using clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein-9 nuclease (Cas9) genome editing technique. Mutations (BmA2) resulted a prolongnation larval stage 3.5 d as well failure wing expansion moths. The BmA2 mutation accelerated food transition throughout digestive tract, which is 1.55-fold that wild type (WT) insects. Excretion was 1.56-fold WT during stage, resulting loss body water content. Loss function induced significant upregulation nitric oxide synthase (NOS) enzyme activity (NO) content, downstream Ca2+/NO/cGMP signaling pathways. Key genes insulin ecdysone pathways were also affected disruption. Our data show play key regulating homeostasis development.