Abstract：
Insect reproductive capacity can affect effective pest control and infertility studies and has become an important focus in recent molecular genetic research. Nucleosome assembly protein (Nap) is highly conserved across multiple species and is involved in forming the sperm nucleus in many species. We used clustered regularly interspaced palindromic repeats/Cas9 technology to knockout BmNap in Bombyx mori and observed that the mutations caused female infertility, whereas male fertility was not affected. BmNap mutants grew and mated normally; however, female mutants laid smaller eggs that could not be fertilised and did not hatch. In addition, female sterility produced by the mutation could be inherited stably via male mutants; therefore, Nap could be used as a potential target for lepidopteran pest control through population regulation. In the current study, we elucidated a new function of BmNap, increased the understanding of the oogenesis regulation network in Lepidoptera and promoted the development of insect sterility technologies.
摘要：
昆虫繁殖能力可影响有效的害虫防治和不育研究，已成为近年来分子遗传学研究的重要热点。核小体组装蛋白（Nap）在多个物种中高度保守，并参与许多物种的精子核形成。我们使用聚集的规则间隔回文重复序列/Cas9技术敲除Bombyxmori中的BmNap，并观察到突变导致女性不育。而男性生育能力不受影响。BmNap突变体正常生长和交配；然而，雌性突变体产下的卵较小，无法受精，也无法孵化。此外,该突变产生的雌性不育可以通过雄性突变体稳定遗传；因此，nap可以通过种群调节作为鳞翅目害虫防治的潜在目标。在目前的研究中,我们阐明了BmNap的新功能，增加了对鳞翅目卵子发生调节网络的了解，促进了昆虫不育技术的发展。
