Abstract
The steroid hormone ecdysone is a central regulator of insect development. In this report we show that CTCF expression in the prothoracic gland is required for full transcriptional activation of the Halloween genes spookier, shadow and noppera-bo, which encode ecdysone biosynthetic enzymes, and for proper timing of ecdysoneresponsive gene expression. Loss of CTCF results in delayed and less synchronized larval development that can only be rescued by feeding larvae with both, the steroid hormone 20-hydroxyecdysone and cholesterol. Moreover, CTCF-knockdown in prothoracic gland cells leads to increased lipid accumulation. In conclusion, the insulator protein CTCF is required for Halloween gene expression and cholesterol homeostasis in ecdysone-producing cells controlling steroidogenesis.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 852-857 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Biology Open |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 15 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacioñ (BFU2009-10983 and BFU2013-48712-P). M.B.O. was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01 GM093301.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (BFU2009-10983 and BFU2013-48712-P). M.B.O. was supported by National Institutes of Health grant R01 GM093301.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd |.
Keywords
- CTCF
- Developmental timing
- Ecdysone
- Halloween genes