2025/12/5
Mohammad Majdi

Mohammad Majdi

Academic rank: Associate Professor
ORCID:
Education: PhD.
H-Index:
Faculty: Faculty of Agriculture
ScholarId:
E-mail: m.majdi [at] uok.ac.ir
ScopusId: View
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ResearchGate:

Research

Title
Transcriptome wide identification of neuropeptides and G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in Sunn pest, Eurygaster integriceps Puton
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
Insects, Neuropeptide, RNA seq, Sunn pest
Year
2024
Journal Gene
DOI
Researchers Mehrbanoo Kazemi Alamuti ، Mohammad Majdi ، Reza Talebi ، Mehdi Dastranj ، Alireza Bandani ، Ghasem Hosseini Salekdeh ، Mohammad Reza Ghaffari

Abstract

Sunn pest (Eurygaster integriceps Puton) is major wheat pest causing economic damage. Neuropeptides and their receptors, G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), are involved in the regulation of insect physiology and behavior. Herein, a transcriptome-wide analysis was conducted in order to identify genes encoding neuropeptides, and putative GPCRs to gain insight into neuropeptide-modulated processes. De novo transcriptome assembly was undertaken using paired-end sequence reads derived from RNA samples collected from whole adults and yielded 582,398 contigs. In total, 46 neuropeptides have been identified, encompassing various known insect neuro- peptide families. In addition, we discovered four previously uncharacterized neuroparsin peptides, which con- tributes to our understanding of the neuropeptide landscape. Furthermore, 85 putative neuropeptide GPCRs were identified, comprising three classes of GPCRs, A, B, C, and LGR, of which class C is not widely reported in insects. In addition, the identified GPCRs exhibited a remarkable 80% homology with the GPCRs found in the brown marmorated stink bug. It is noteworthy that these GPCRs displayed only a 20% homology to GPCRs from many other insect species. This information may be used to understand the neuropeptide-modulated physiology and behavior of Eurygaster integriceps, and to develop specific neuropeptide-based pest management strategies.