Ommochrome pathway genes kynurenine 3-hydroxylase and cardinal participate in eye pigmentation in Plutella xylostella
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BMC Molecular and Cell Biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Ommochrome pathway genes kynurenine 3-hydroxylase and cardinal participate in eye pigmentation in Plutella xylostella Xuejiao Xu1,2,3, Tim Harvey-Samuel4, Jie Yang1,2,3, Luke Alphey4† and Minsheng You1,2,3*†
Abstract Background: Eye pigmentation genes have been utilized as visible markers for constructing genetic control prototypes in several insect vectors of human disease. Here, orthologs of two ommochrome pathway genes, kynurenine 3-hydroxylase (kmo) and cardinal, were investigated in Plutella xylostella, a globally distributed, economically important pest of Brassica crops. Results: Both somatic mosaic and germline mutations were efficiently created using the CRISPR/Cas9 system, and null mutant strains of Pxkmo and Pxcardinal were obtained. A frame-shift mutation in Pxkmo caused yellow compound eyes at adult stage while an in-frame mutation lacking two amino acids resulted in a hypomorphic red eye phenotypes. In contrast, Pxcardinal-deficient moths with a frame-shift mutation exhibited yellow eye pigmentation in newly emerged adults which turned to red as the adults aged. Additionally, differences were observed in the coloration of larval ocelli, brains and testes in Pxkmo and Pxcardinal yellow-eye mutant lines. Conclusions: Our work identifies the important roles of Pxkmo and Pxcardinal in P. xylostella eye pigmentation and provides tools for future genetic manipulation of this important crop pest. Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9, Kynurenine 3-hydroxylase, Cardinal, Plutella xylostella, Eye pigmentation, Gene drive
Background The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, is one of the most destructive agricultural pests worldwide and causes great economic damage by feeding on cruciferous crops during its larval stage, significantly impacting plant quality and yield [1, 2]. Additionally, its rapid development of resistance against a broad range of insecticides including Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins has become the primary challenge in the management of this * Correspondence: [email protected] † Luke Alphey and Minsheng You contributed equally to this work. 1 State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China 2 Joint International Research Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control, Ministry of Education, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
global pest [1, 3]. Genetics-based strategies have been proposed as environmentally friendly complements or alternatives to current pesticide-based method. For example, the female-specific RIDL system, where lethal phenotypes are only expressed in females, has been engineered in DBM for reducing female density and consequently suppressing populations [4, 5]. Recently, CRIS PR-based gene drive systems have been described in several disease vectors as potentially powerful population suppression/replacem
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