Sogatella furcifera （Hovarth） is a major rice pest with sexual dimorphism. The objective of the current research was to monitor differentially cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in male and female adults of S. f...Sogatella furcifera （Hovarth） is a major rice pest with sexual dimorphism. The objective of the current research was to monitor differentially cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in male and female adults of S. furcifera to determine the association between gene methylation and sexual phenotypes using methylation-sensitive representa- tional difference analysis. After the second subtractive hybridization, four differentially methylated DNA bands were obtained and sequenced. Ten different fragments were found. One fragment from the positive hybridization was 120 bp, and highly similar to the tram- track genes from Nasonia vitripennis. Another fragment from the reverse hybridization was 414 bp, and homologous to the 28S rRNA gene of S. furcifera with a similarity rate as high as 99%. We also discussed how DNA methylation of tramtrack and 28S rRNA genes produced effects on sexual differentiation and development. These results provide potential evidence that DNA methylation of some genes may be related to sexual phenotype variations in S.furcifera and will facilitate future studies on the epigenetic mechanisms of insect sexual dimorphism.展开更多
基金This research was supported by the National Nat- ural Science Foundation of China （31171844） and Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province （$2011010001353）. We are very grateful to Dr. Min Zhang and Mrs. Wen-Jing Wu for technical assistance.
文摘Sogatella furcifera （Hovarth） is a major rice pest with sexual dimorphism. The objective of the current research was to monitor differentially cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in male and female adults of S. furcifera to determine the association between gene methylation and sexual phenotypes using methylation-sensitive representa- tional difference analysis. After the second subtractive hybridization, four differentially methylated DNA bands were obtained and sequenced. Ten different fragments were found. One fragment from the positive hybridization was 120 bp, and highly similar to the tram- track genes from Nasonia vitripennis. Another fragment from the reverse hybridization was 414 bp, and homologous to the 28S rRNA gene of S. furcifera with a similarity rate as high as 99%. We also discussed how DNA methylation of tramtrack and 28S rRNA genes produced effects on sexual differentiation and development. These results provide potential evidence that DNA methylation of some genes may be related to sexual phenotype variations in S.furcifera and will facilitate future studies on the epigenetic mechanisms of insect sexual dimorphism.
