Developmental expression and hormonal regulation of male-specific yellow protein mRNA in adults of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria

Adult males of Schistocerca gregaria turn yellow when they become sexually mature. This is due to the deposition in the cuticle of a male-specific Yellow Protein (YP), of which the amino acid sequence is known. Yellowing only happens in crowd-reared (gregarious) males, and results from the deposition of a specific ‘Yellow Protein’. If individual males (solitarious) are isolated after the adult emergence, they become sexually mature but they do not turn yellow. On the basis of a partial YP-mRNA sequence, we established a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay to study the developmental expression of YP in crowd-reared males, isolated-reared males and females. In crowd-reared adult males the transcription of YP gene started from day 5 on, and reached a maximum at day 12. The effects of juvenile hormone (JH), insulin (bovine), corazonin, ecdysone and 20 0H-ecdysone (20E) on the regulation of YP-mRNA synthesis were also investigated. JH made the cuticle turn yellow and, as shown by RT-PCR, YP-mRNA was induced. The effect of 100 μg JHIII was stronger than that of 10 μg. Insulin was only effective in inducing YP-mRNA synthesis at high dose (19 μg) and after more days (18 d). Corazonin and 20E made the cuticle turn black, but no YP-mRNA synthesis was observed. Ecdysone (10 and 100 μg) showed no effect on body coloration and YP-mRNA. Thus, JH was found to be the most potent inducer among the hormones tested