Environmental Entomology (2018) 47, 1216-1225

Yan-Dong Jiang, Xin Yuan, Yue-Liang Bai, Gui-Yao Wang, Wen-Wu Zhou and Zeng-Rong Zhu (2018)
Knockdown of timeless disrupts the circadian behavioral rhythms in Laodelphax striatellus (Hemiptera: Delphacidae)
Environmental Entomology 47 (5), 1216-1225
Abstract: Most living organisms developed the innate clock system to anticipate daily environmental changes and to enhance their chances of survival. timeless (tim) is a canonical clock gene. It has been extensively studied in Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera: Drosophilidae) as a key component of the endogenous circadian clock, but its role is largely unknown in some agriculture pests. Laodelphax striatellus (Fallén) (Hemiptera: Delphacidae), an important rice pest, exhibits a robust locomotor rhythm. In the present study, we cloned tim gene (ls-tim) from L. striatellus and investigated its function in the regulation of behavioral rhythms. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction revealed a circadian expression pattern of ls-tim under different light conditions with a trough in the photophase and a peak in the late scotophase. After the knockdown of ls-tim via RNA interference (RNAi), the adults showed an earlier onset of locomotor activity under light/dark cycles and became arrhythmic in constant darkness. ls-tim RNAi also abolished the timing of adult emergence that normally occurs in the early photophase. These results suggest that ls-tim is essential for the light-entrained circadian rhythms in L. striatellus and provide more insights into the endogenous clock network underlying the behavioral and physiological rhythms of this insect.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Zeng-Rong Zhu

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Laodelphax striatellus