Notch and Delta Control the Switch and Formation of Camouflage Patterns in Caterpillars

In most Papilio species, younger larva mimics the bird dropping but changes its pattern into host plant like coloration in its final instar. This change is determined by the juvenile hormone (JH) during JH-sensitive period (JHSP) in early 4th instar. We recently found that three homeobox genes controls the pre-pattern formation only in JHSP, but how patterning is established until pigmentation occurs at molt is unknown. Here knockdown of Delta and Notch in Papilio xuthus larva showed that they define the edge and pigmentation area in final patterns, during and even after JHSP, suggesting that they may bridge the JHSP and molt. The knockdown of Delta in Papilio machaon showed similar phenotypic changes, and knockdown of Notch caused pigmentation loss in twin spots of Bombyx mori L mutant. This shows the importance of the Notch signaling in adaptive evolution of caterpillar color pattern formation.

Keywords: Delta, Notch, color pattern, camouflage, caterpillar, Lepidoptera, Papilio xuthus, Papilio machaon, Bombyx mori

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Jin, Hongyuan and Yoda, Shinichi and Liu, Liang and Kojima, Tetsuya and Fujiwara, Haruhiko, Notch and Delta Control the Switch and Formation of Camouflage Patterns in Caterpillars. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3575116 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3575116

This version of the paper has not been formally peer reviewed.