{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T12:30:26Z","timestamp":1780403426866,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,25]],"date-time":"2022-02-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1645747200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["32072416"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32072416"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Insects"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Fushi Tarazu Factor 1 (FTZ-F1), a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, is the downstream factor of 20-hydroxyecdysone signaling. In Drosophila melanogaster, alternative transcription start and splicing in the FTZ-F1 gene generate \u03b1FTZ-F1 and \u03b2FTZ-F1 isoforms, which are vital for pair-rule segmentation in early embryogenesis and post-embryonic development, respectively. However, whether the same mRNA isoforms are present and exert the conservative roles remains to be clarified in other insects. In the present paper, we first mined the genomic data of representative insect species and unveiled that the same post-transcriptional processing in FTZ-F1 occurred in coleopterans, lepidopterans, dipterans and hymenopterans. Our expression data in Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata, a serious polyphagous defoliator damaging a wide range of crops in Solanaceae and Cucurbitaceae, showed that both \u03b1FTZ-F1 and \u03b2FTZ-F1 were actively transcribed throughout the development, from embryo to adult. The RNA interference-aided knockdown of both isoforms completely arrested larval ecdysis from the third to the fourth instar, in contrast to the depletion of either isoform. In contrast, silencing \u03b2FTZ-F1, rather than \u03b1FTZ-F1, severely impaired the larval\u2013pupal transformation. We accordingly propose that both FTZ-F1 isoforms are essential but mutually interchangeable for larval\u2013larval molting, while \u03b2FTZ-F1 is necessary for the larval\u2013pupal transition and sufficient to exert the role of both FTZ-F1s during larval\u2013pupal metamorphosis in H. vigintioctopunctata.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/insects13030228","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,25]],"date-time":"2022-02-25T10:00:40Z","timestamp":1645783240000},"page":"228","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Dissecting the Isoform-Specific Roles of FTZ-F1 in the Larval\u2013Larval and Larval\u2013Pupal Ecdyses in Henosepilachna vigintioctopunctata"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Jian-Jian","family":"Wu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Min-Di","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Long-Ji","family":"Ze","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2576-5133","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chen-Hui","family":"Shen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5114-7139","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lin","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7449-8433","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guo-Qing","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Integrated Management of Crop Diseases and Pests, State & Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Green Pesticide Invention and Application, Department of Entomology, College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,2,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1111\/imb.12541","article-title":"Hormonal control and target genes of ftz-f1 expression in the honeybee Apis mellifera: A positive loop linking juvenile hormone, and vitellogenin","volume":"28","author":"Mello","year":"2018","journal-title":"Insect Mol. 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