DINeR

A Database for Insect Neuropeptide Research

Search the database for information about the various species and neuropeptides of interest

Insect Neuropeptides - Allatotropin

Introduction

Allatotropins are peptides that stimulate biosynthesis or release of juvenile hormone (JH) from the corpora allata. The first member of this family was isolated and sequenced from Manduca sexta(Kataoka et al., 1989). The amino acid sequence was used to design degenerate primers and clone the first allatotropin gene (Taylor et al., 1996). Since then, allatotropins has been discovered in several insect orders. However, the allatotropin signaling system has been lost in Drosophila melanogaster (Hewes and Taghert, 2001). Most allatotropins have a characteristic TARGFamide C-terminus (Bendena and Tobe, 2012). Two allatotropin receptors were first to be deorphanized in Bombyx mori (Yamanaka et al., 2008) followed by characterization of allatotropin receptors in Aedes aegypti, Tribolium castaneum and M. sexta (Bendena and Tobe, 2012); these GPCRs are related to mammalian orexin receptors (Jékely, 2013; Mirabeau and Joly, 2013). Although the GPCRs are related the insect allatotropin and vertebrate orexin peptides bear no similarities and the disulfide bridges of orexins are absent in allatotropins.

Location

Allatotropin expression has been mapped using immunohistochemistry in Schistocerca gregaria, Manduca sexta, Heliothis veriscens, Leucophaea madera, Periplaneta americana, and Rhodnius prolixus (Homberg et al., 2004; Masood and Orchard, 2013; Rachinsky et al., 2006; Rudwall et al., 2000; Utz et al., 2008). Allatotropin-like immunoreactivity is present throughout the CNS. In particular, staining is associated with the optic lobes, median neurosecretory cells in the brain that project axons on to the retrocerebral complex as well as neurosecretory cells in the abdominal ganglia.

Function

Allatotropin stimulates JH biosynthesis in several species (Bendena and Tobe, 2012). Several other functions of allatotropin have been discovered. These include myostimulation (Duve et al., 1999; Masood and Orchard, 2013; Rudwall et al., 2000; Veenstra et al., 1994), release of digestive enzymes in the midgut (Lwalaba et al., 2010), photic entrainment of the circadian clock (Petri et al., 2002), and regulation of feeding amongst others (Nagata et al., 2012; Verlinden et al., 2015). Hence, their role as a myotropic factor appears to be the ancestral function for this peptide.

SeqLogo and Cladogram

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Suggested Reviews

  • Bendena, W.G., Tobe, S.S., 2012. Families of allatoregulator sequences : a 2011 perspective. Can. J. Zool. 90, 521–544. doi:10.1139/Z2012-012
    View Review
  • Nässel, D.R., Winther, Å.M.E., 2010. Drosophila neuropeptides in regulation of physiology and behavior. Prog. Neurobiol. 92, 42–104. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2010.04.010
    View Review
  • Verlinden, H., Gijbels, M., Lismont, E., Lenaerts, C., Vanden Broeck, J., Marchal, E., 2015. The pleiotropic allatoregulatory neuropeptides and their receptors: A mini-review. J. Insect Physiol. 80, 2–14. doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2015.04.004
    View Review

References

  • Bendena, W.G., Tobe, S.S., 2012. Families of allatoregulator sequences : a 2011 perspective. Can. J. Zool. 90, 521–544. doi:10.1139/Z2012-012
  • Duve, H., East, P.D., Thorpe, A., 1999. Regulation of lepidopteran foregut movement by allatostatins and allatotropin from the frontal ganglion. J. Comp. Neurol. 413, 405–416. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1096-9861(19991025)413:3<405::AID-CNE4>3.0.CO;2-R
  • Hewes, R.S., Taghert, P.H., 2001. Neuropeptides and neuropeptide receptors in the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Genome Res. 11, 1126–1142. doi:10.1101/gr.169901
  • Homberg, U., Brandl, C., Clynen, E., Schoofs, L., Veenstra, J.A., 2004. Mas-allatotropin/Lom-AG-myotropin I immunostaining in the brain of the locust, Schistocerca gregaria. Cell Tissue Res. 318, 439–457. doi:10.1007/s00441-004-0913-7
  • Jékely, G., 2013. Global view of the evolution and diversity of metazoan neuropeptide signaling. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 110, 8702–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.1221833110
  • Kataoka, H., Toschi, A., Li, J.P., Carney, R.L., Schooley, D.A., Kramer, S.J., 1989. Identification of an allatotropin from adult Manduca sexta. Science 243, 1481–3. doi:10.1126/science.243.4897.1481
  • Lwalaba, D., Hoffmann, K.H., Woodring, J., 2010. Control of the release of digestive enzymes in the larvae of the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda. Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 73, 14–29. doi:10.1002/arch.20332
  • Masood, M., Orchard, I., 2013. Molecular characterization and possible biological roles of allatotropin in Rhodnius prolixus. Peptides 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2013.10.017
  • Mirabeau, O., Joly, J.-S., 2013. Molecular evolution of peptidergic signaling systems in bilaterians. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 110, E2028–37. doi:10.1073/pnas.1219956110
  • Nagata, S., Matsumoto, S., Mizoguchi, A., Nagasawa, H., 2012. Identification of cDNAs encoding allatotropin and allatotropin-like peptides from the silkworm, Bombyx mori. Peptides 34, 98–105. doi:10.1016/j.peptides.2012.01.002
  • Petri, B., Homberg, U., Loesel, R., Stengl, M., 2002. Evidence for a role of GABA and Mas-allatotropin in photic entrainment of the circadian clock of the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. J. Exp. Biol. 205, 1459–69.
  • Rachinsky, A., Mizoguchi, A., Srinivasan, A., Ramaswamy, S.B., 2006. Allatotropin-like peptide in Heliothis virescens: tissue localization and quantification. Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 62, 11–25. doi:10.1002/arch.20117
  • Rudwall, A.J., Sliwowska, J., and Nässel, D.R. (2000). Allatotropin-like neuropeptide in the cockroach abdominal nervous system: myotropic actions, sexually dimorphic distribution and colocalization with serotonin. J Comp Neurol 428, 159-173.
  • Taylor, P.A., Bhatt, T.R., Horodyski, F.M., 1996. Molecular Characterization and Expression Analysis of Manduca sextaAllatotropin. Eur. J. Biochem. 239, 588–596. doi:10.1111/j.1432-1033.1996.0588u.x
  • Utz, S., Huetteroth, W., Vömel, M., Schachtner, J., 2008. Mas-allatotropin in the developing antennal lobe of the sphinx moth Manduca sexta : Distribution, time course, developmental regulation, and colocalization with other neuropeptides. Dev. Neurobiol. 68, 123–142. doi:10.1002/dneu.20579
  • Veenstra, J.A., Lehman, H.K., Davis, N.T., 1994. Allatotropin is a cardioacceleratory peptide in Manduca sexta. J. Exp. Biol. 188, 347–54.
  • Verlinden, H., Gijbels, M., Lismont, E., Lenaerts, C., Vanden Broeck, J., Marchal, E., 2015. The pleiotropic allatoregulatory neuropeptides and their receptors: A mini-review. J. Insect Physiol. 80, 2–14. doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2015.04.004
  • Yamanaka, N., Yamamoto, S., Žitňan, D., Watanabe, K., Kawada, T., Satake, H., Kaneko, Y., Hiruma, K., Tanaka, Y., Shinoda, T., Kataoka, H., 2008. Neuropeptide receptor transcriptome reveals unidentified neuroendocrine pathways. PLoS One 3, 1–12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003048
© Dow-Davies Lab, 2018