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Silencing the triacylglycerol lipase (TGL) gene decreases the number of apyrene sperm and inhibits oviposition in Sitotroga cerealella

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Abstract

Triacylglycerol lipase (TGL) is an essential lipid metabolism enzyme that also plays a critical role in energy metabolism; however, how it regulates other life processes is unknown. To investigate the functional role of TGL in moth reproduction, males Sitotroga cerealella were used as a model. The TGL gene was cloned and analysed. The results showed that the open reading frame of TGL was 1968 bp long and contained three conserved regions. TGL gene expression was higher in the larval and early adult stages than in the pupal stage, with the highest levels observed in the fat body, testis and accessory glands during the early adult stage. Moreover, after TGL in male adults was silenced through RNAi, the protein content in male accessory glands remained unchanged, and the spermatophore transferred into females mated with TGL-silenced males became small and empty; meanwhile, the number of apyrene sperm in the spermatophore was significantly reduced due to the reduction of apyrene sperm in males, which eventually led to the significant reduction of egg-laying amount. All of the findings suggest that TGL regulates the amount of sperm in male moths as well as the morphology and quality of spermatophores transferred to females after mating with treated males, implying that TGL is critical for Sitotroga cerealella’s reproductive process.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871955), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0201009), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2017CFB541), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662017JC032).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31871955), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFD0201009), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2017CFB541), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662017JC032).

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  1. Wen-han Yan and Meng-Ya Wu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Insect Resources Utilization and Sustainable Pest Management Key Laboratory, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Wen-han Yan, Meng-Ya Wu, Sakhawat Shah, Yu-Chen Yao, Ning Tang, Gang Wu & Feng-Lian Yang

  2. Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Moshtohor, Toukh, 13736, Egypt

    Karam Khamis Elgizawy

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  1. Wen-han Yan
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Contributions

Conceived of and designed the experiments: W-HY, M-YW, and F-LY. Performed the experiments: W-HY, M-YW, NT; Analysis of the data: W-HY and GW; Drafted and revised manuscript: W-HY, SS, Y-CY, KKE, and F-LY. All authors approved the final version of the article, including the authorship list.

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Correspondence to Feng-Lian Yang.

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Yan, Wh., Wu, MY., Shah, S. et al. Silencing the triacylglycerol lipase (TGL) gene decreases the number of apyrene sperm and inhibits oviposition in Sitotroga cerealella. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 79, 44 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-021-04048-6

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