Hormonal regulation and molecular mechanisms of insect host-symbiont crosstalk

发现蜕皮激素引起的饥饿是导致半翅目昆虫体内共生菌数量减少的主要原因。通过EST数据库的构建和表达定量分析，获得了许多与昆虫共生有关的新基因。此外，还建立了蝽类昆虫的RNAi方法。新的共生相关基因的发现和功能分析的建立将使宿主-共生体串扰的分子机制研究取得重大进展。

I found that starvation induced by molting hormone is the main cause of reduction of the amount of symbiotic bacteria in hemipteran insects. Also I succeeded in obtaining many novel genes involved in insect symbiosis by the construction of EST database and quantitative expression analysis. Moreover, I established RNAi method for stinkbug insects. Identification of novel symbiosis-associated genes and establishment of functional analysis will allow significant advance in analysis of the molecular mechanisms of host-symbiont crosstalk.