Epigenetics of neonicotinoids in an important insect pollinator

新烟碱类杀虫剂在重要昆虫传粉者中的表观遗传学

• 批准号: 2098605
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2098605
• 关键词: Epigenetics; neonicotinoids; important; insect; pollinator

Neonicotinoids are a popular class of insecticides that are favoured due to their efficiency in killing insects whilst having low toxicity towards vertebrates. Unfortunately, neonicotinoid insecticides have been implicated in the decline of bees. These insecticides are neuroactive and target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) which disrupts the function of insect neurons, resulting in paralysis and death. Additionally, sublethal doses in both honeybees and bumblebees has been found to cause behavioural changes such as impaired foraging, navigation, memory and movement. Due to the wide range of effects it has been suggested that neonicotinoids have multiple modes of action beyond their intended neurotransmission target. Gene expression differences due to neonicotinoid exposure has been found in honeybee and bumblebee across developmental stages and castes. However, looking at this from a single cell approach would provide a unique means to generate a brain-wide view of gene expression changes at a cellular resolution. This would enable us to further discover what genes and pathways are altered in bumblebee workers in response to neonicotinoids. Recently, single cell RNA-seq has emerged as a powerful technique to investigate high resolution transcriptome differences, cellular heterogeneity and cellular markers. scRNA-Seq would greatly improve our understanding of the mechanisms affected by exposure to neonicotinoids and identify cell-specific responses. This in turn would aid our understanding of the effect of pesticides on target pest species, identify important potential biomarkers of pesticide toxicity and ultimately help to inform future discussion on legislation controlling neonicotinoid use.

新烟碱类是一类受欢迎的杀虫剂，由于其杀死昆虫的效率而受到青睐，同时对脊椎动物具有低毒性。不幸的是，类烟碱杀虫剂与蜜蜂数量的减少有关。这些杀虫剂具有神经活性，靶向烟碱乙酰胆碱受体（nAChR），这会破坏昆虫神经元的功能，导致麻痹和死亡。此外，在蜜蜂和熊蜂中，亚致死剂量被发现会导致行为变化，如觅食、导航、记忆和运动受损。由于广泛的影响，已表明类尼古丁具有超出其预期神经传递靶点的多种作用模式。由于类烟碱暴露的基因表达差异已在蜜蜂和熊蜂的不同发育阶段和种姓中发现。然而，从单细胞方法来观察这一点将提供一种独特的手段，以细胞分辨率生成基因表达变化的全脑视图。这将使我们能够进一步发现大黄蜂工人对类烟碱的反应中改变了哪些基因和途径。最近，单细胞RNA-seq已成为研究高分辨率转录组差异、细胞异质性和细胞标志物的强大技术。scRNA-Seq将大大提高我们对暴露于类尼古丁影响的机制的理解，并确定细胞特异性反应。这反过来将有助于我们了解农药对目标害虫物种的影响，确定农药毒性的重要潜在生物标志物，并最终有助于为未来关于控制类烟碱使用的立法讨论提供信息。