Molecular Genetics of Insect Adenotropic Neuropeptides

昆虫的生长和繁殖是由内分泌腺释放的激素控制的。反过来，这些腺体是由大脑中一小群细胞产生的特定神经肽控制的。分子遗传学和DNA克隆方法将用于研究其中一种神经肽的产生和功能的控制，称为pth（促胸激素）。这些研究将使用果蝇进行，果蝇是分子遗传学研究的首选生物。通过测定不同发育阶段和受生长干扰突变影响的昆虫体内甲状旁腺激素和蜕皮激素的水平，将对甲状旁腺激素控制蜕皮激素产生的观点进行检验。PTTH基因将被克隆，从克隆基因中提取的合成PTTH将被用于实验，以研究PTTH如何控制其靶器官前胸腺。遗传学技术将被用来破坏PTTH基因，以确定它控制的所有过程。这些研究结果有望扩展我们对激素控制昆虫生长的理解，并为设计新的昆虫控制剂提供新的策略。此外，它们将为研究包括人类在内的其他生物生殖控制的基本神经激素机制提供新的途径。

The growth and reproduction of insects is controlled by hormones released from the endocrine glands. These glands are, in turn, controlled by specific neuropeptides produced in small groups of cells in the brain. Molecular genetics and DNA cloning methods will be used to investigate the control of production and the functions of one of these neuropeptides, named PTTH (prothoracicotropic hormones). The studies will be carried out using the fruitfly Drosophila, which is the organism of choice for molecular genetic studies. The idea that PTTH controls the production of molting hormone will be tested by determining the levels of PTTH and molting hormone at different developmental stages and in insects affected by mutations that perturb growth. The PTTH gene will be cloned, and synthetic PTTH derived from the cloned gene will be used in experiments to investigate how PTTH controls its target organ, the prothoracic gland, Genetic techniques will be used to disrupt the PTTH gene in order to identify all of the processes that it controls. The results of these studies promise to extend our understanding of the hormonal control of insect growth and lead to novel strategies for designing new insect control agents. In addition, they will provide a new way of investigating the basic neurohormonal mechanisms underlying control of reproduction in other organisms including man.