Professor Zhao Xiaofan and her colleagues, affiliated to the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Cell and Developmental Biology, and the School of Life Sciences in Shandong University, had breakthrough in the study on insect development.

The study results “Protein kinase C delta phosphorylates ecdysone receptor B1 to promote gene expression and apoptosis under 20-hydroxyecdysone regulation” have been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in July 2017 by direct submission. Chen Caihua, a doctoral candidate is the first author of the article, Prof. Zhao is the corresponding author. The article has been recommended as a paper with special significance in this field by Dr. Kang Le, the F1000Prime expert andmember of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Understanding the molecular mechanism of insect growth and development has important theoretical significance and application value for the utilization of insects and pest control. The group members of Professor Zhao used the major agricultural pest cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigeraas a model to investigate insect development. Their studies have been supported by the key projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China continually.

Their studies have revealed some of the mechanisms of insect development from larvae to pupae, and presented a basic model of the molting hormone ecdysone signaling pathway through the membrane receptor and nuclear receptor. Their series study results have been published inPNAS,Development,Journal of Biological Chemistry,Endocrinology,Insect Biochemistryand Molecular Biology, and other academic journals. Their studies provide theoretical knowledge for insect development and target genes for insect pest control.

Read the PNAS paper: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/34/E7121.long

Homepage of Zhao Xiaofan: http://www.lifesci.sdu.edu.cn/showContent.aspx?id=1033

Source: the School of Life Sciences, Shandong University

Edited by: Xie Tingting