ArticlePLoS biology2019
A specific type of insulin-like peptide regulates the conditional growth of a beetle weapon.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Duplicated paralog of insulin receptor functions distinctively in locust reproduction for high fecundity.Insect science · 2026Article
- Ontogenetic Sequence of Differential Gene Expression in Predator-Induced Daphnia pulex.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Cessation of Gene Flow Associated With the Reduction of a Sexually Selected Phenotype in the Island Stag Beetle.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Transcriptomic basis underlying the evolution of female horn plasticity in scarab beetles.Frontiers in zoology · 2026Article
- Insulin-like peptide has antagonistic pleiotropic effects on male combat traits and survival traits in an armed beetle.The Journal of experimental biology · 2026Article
- Venom IMP-L2 from the EctoparasitoidInsects · 2025Article
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- The Genetic Basis Underpinning Sexually Selected Traits across Different Animal Lineages: Are There Genetic Mechanisms in Common?Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- The diverse roles of insulin signaling in insect behavior.Frontiers in insect science · 2024Review
- Transcriptomic and functional screening of weapon formation genes implies significance of cell adhesion molecules and female-biased genes in broad-horned flour beetle.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- A cis-regulatory sequence of the selector gene vestigial drives the evolution of wing scaling in Drosophila species.The Journal of experimental biology · 2023Article
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- Mitochondria dysfunction impairs Tribolium castaneum wing development during metamorphosis.Communications biology · 2022Article
- Evaluation of Body Size Indicators for Morphological Analyses in Two Sister Species of Genus Dorcus (Coleoptera, Lucanidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2022Article
- The Insulin Receptor: An Important Target for the Development of Novel Medicines and Pesticides.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Genome-Wide Identification of Neuropeptides and Their Receptors in an Aphid Endoparasitoid Wasp,Insects · 2021Article
- Evolution of sexual development and sexual dimorphism in insects.Current opinion in genetics & development · 2021Review
- Identification of Gonadulin and Insulin-Like Growth Factor From Migratory Locusts and Their Importance in Reproduction inFrontiers in endocrinology · 2021Article
- Complex Evolution of Insect Insulin Receptors and Homologous Decoy Receptors, and Functional Significance of Their Multiplicity.Molecular biology and evolution · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evolutionarily conserved insulin/insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling (IIS) has been identified as a major physiological mechanism underlying the nutrient-dependent regulation of sexually selected weapon growth in animals. However, the molecular mechanisms that couple nutritional state with weapon growth remain largely unknown. Here, we show that one specific subtype of insulin-like peptide (ILP) responds to nutrient status and thereby regulates weapon size in the broad-horned flour beetle Gnatocerus cornutus. By using transcriptome information, we identified five G. cornutus ILP (GcorILP1-5) and two G. cornutus insulin-like receptor (GcorInR1, -2) genes in the G. cornutus genome. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing revealed that a certain subtype of ILP, GcorILP2, specifically regulated weapon size. Importantly, GcorILP2 was highly and specifically expressed in the fat body in a condition-dependent manner. We further found that GcorInR1 and GcorInR2 are functionally redundant but that the latter is partially specialized for regulating weapon growth. These results strongly suggest that GcorILP2 is an important component of the developmental mechanism that couples nutritional state to weapon growth in G. cornutus. We propose that the duplication and subsequent diversification of IIS genes played a pivotal role in the evolution of the complex growth regulation of secondary sexual traits.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.