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Early cellular development induced by ecdysteroid in sex-specific wing degeneration of the wingless female winter moth

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Abstract

The winter moth, Nyssiodes lefuarius, exhibits striking sexual dimorphism in wing form; males have functional wings of normal size, whereas females lack wings. We previously found that the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) triggered massive programmed cell death (PCD) only in the female pupal wing epithelium; however, when and how early sexual trait development of the pupal wings is initiated during pupal-adult metamorphosis remains obscure. To clarify the detailed morphological changes and mechanisms underlying early sexual trait development and cell death, we examined the effects of 20E on early ultrastructural and histological changes in the pupal wing epithelium of both sexes. Before the onset of adult differentiation, no morphological differences were observed in the epithelial cells of both sexes at an ultrastructural level. When 5.4 µg of 20E was injected into pupae of both sexes at 15 days after the onset of pupation, retraction of the wing epithelium from the pupal cuticle was initiated at day 2 after 20E injection in both sexes. Although overt degeneration of wing tissue was not still obvious, apoptotic body-like structures and auto-phagosomes were visible at day 3 after 20E injection in females, whereas development of scale precursor cells started on day 4 after injection in males. Our results suggest that (1) the injection of 20E induced sexually dimorphic changes in the pattern of organelle distribution in wing epithelial cells, and (2) abnormally shaped mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the female wing epithelium might be involved in the PCD that occurs during wing tissue degeneration.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dr. M. Kamimura for gifting us the 20-hydroxyecdysone solution. We also thank Dr. T. Sugimoto for his useful comments in preparing the manuscript. We also thank Dr. M. Kurokawa for kindly supporting our experimental procedures.

Funding

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C (Grant No. JP19K06791 to S.N.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 1-1 Minami-Osawa, Hachioji, 192-0397, Japan

    Shuhei Niitsu

  2. Department of Arts and Sciences, International Christian University, 3-10-2 Osawa, Mitaka, 181-8585, Japan

    Shuhei Niitsu & Takehiko Kamito

  3. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Shuhei Niitsu

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  1. Shuhei Niitsu
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  2. Takehiko Kamito
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Correspondence to Shuhei Niitsu.

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Niitsu, S., Kamito, T. Early cellular development induced by ecdysteroid in sex-specific wing degeneration of the wingless female winter moth. Cell Tissue Res 387, 29–38 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-021-03540-6

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