Chromatin-remodelling proteins of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris)

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: S. D. Rider, Jr, Wright State University; D. G. Srinivasan, Princeton University; Roland Hilgarth, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-03-10
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2010 The Royal Entomological Society.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2583.2009.00972.x
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Insect Molecular Biology
• ISSN: 0962-1075
• Volume: 19
• Issue: SUPPL. 2
• Start Page: 201
• End Page: 214
• Grant/Funding Information: S.D.R. was supported in part by funds from the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with Grant R21AI068461.; D.G.S. was supported by a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (GM077928).
• Keywords: GENES; TRANSCRIPTIONAL REPRESSION; POLYMERASE PARP; ACETYL TRANSFERASE; reproduction; DROSOPHILA-MELANOGASTER; aphid; SET-DOMAIN; VENOMOUS PROTEASE; SOLDIER; METHYLATION; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; histone methylation; Entomology; HISTONE DEACETYLASE FAMILY; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; epigenetics; Science & Technology; polyphenism
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Pathology; Biology, Molecular; Chemistry, Biochemistry

Abstract

Aphids display extraordinary developmental plasticity in response to environmental cues. These differential responses to environmental changes may be due in part to changes in gene expression patterns. To understand the molecular basis for aphid developmental plasticity, we attempted to identify the chromatinremodelling machinery in the recently sequenced pea aphid genome.We find that the pea aphid possesses a complement of metazoan histone modifying enzymes with greater gene family diversity than that seen in a number of other arthropods. Several genes appear to have undergone recent duplication and divergence, potentially enabling greater combinatorial diversity among the chromatin-remodelling complexes. The abundant aphid chromatin modifying enzymes may facilitate the phenotypic plasticity necessary to maintain the complex life cycle of the aphid.