Work

Methoprene-Tolerant (Met) Acts as Methyl Farnesoate Receptor to Regulate Larva Metamorphosis in Mud Crab, Scylla paramamosain

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: In this study, methoprene-tolerant (Met) of Scylla paramamosain was obtained and characterized, which we named as Sp-Met. The protein sequence of Sp-Met contain one bHLH, two PAS domains, one PAC domain, and several long unusual Gln repeats at the C-terminal. 3D structure analysis indicated a relatively stable structure of the conserved domains of Sp-Met. The binding properties between Sp-Met and MF were analyzed using CD-DOCK2, revealing a putative high affinity between the receptor and ligand, while in silico site-directed mutagenesis proposed that Mets of insects might have evolved to have a higher affinity to both MF or JH Ⅲ than Mets of crustaceans. In addition, we found that the expression of Sp-Met was significantly higher in female reproductive tissues than males. During the larval development, the variation of Sp-Met was consistent with the treatment effect of MF. Finally, the most interesting thing is that knockdown Sp-Met blocked the prohibitory effect of MF on the metamorphosis of Zoea 5th, and induced some pre-metamorphosis phenotype at the Zoea 4th larva. In conclusion, this study firstly proves that MF prohibited crustacean larvae metamorphosis through Met, and MF might have the conserved role in preventing larvae from precocious metamorphosis in mud crabs.

Source: International Journal of Molecular Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/ijms252312746