The association of decreased fecundity with insecticide resistance and the negative sublethal effects of insecticides on insect reproduction indicates the typical trade-off between two highly energy-demanding processes, detoxification and reproduction. However, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. The energy sensor adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the transcription factor Cap “n” collar isoform C (CncC) are important regulators of energy metabolism and xenobiotic response, respectively. In this study, using the beetle Tribolium castaneum as a model organism, we found that deltamethrin-induced oxidative stress activated AMPK, which promoted the nuclear translocation of CncC through its phosphorylation. The CncC not only acts as a transcription activator of cytochrome P450 genes but also regulates the expression of genes coding for ecdysteroid biosynthesis and juvenile hormone (JH) degradation enzymes, resulting in increased ecdysteroid levels as well as decreased JH titer and vitellogenin (Vg) gene expression. These data show that in response to xenobiotic stress, the pleiotropic AMPK–CncC signaling pathway mediates the trade-off between detoxification and reproduction by up-regulating detoxification genes and disturbing hormonal homeostasis.

Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are the targets of two novel classes of synthetic insecticidal chemicals, phthalic acid diamides and anthranilic diamides. Isolation of full-length RyR cDNAs is a critical step towards the structural and functional characterization of insect RyRs and an understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the species selective toxicity of diamide insecticides. However, there has been little research on the insect RyR genes due to the high molecular weight of the RyR proteins. In this study, we isolated a full-length RyR cDNA (named as CmRyR) from Cnaphalocrocis medinalis, an important rice pest throughout Southeast Asia. The composite CmRyR gene contains an ORF of 15264 bp encoding a protein of 5087 amino acid residues, which shares 79% overall identity with its Drosophila melanogaster homologue. All hallmarks of the RyR proteins are conserved in the CmRyR protein, suggesting that CmRyR is a structural and functional analogue of known RyRs. A multiple sequence alignment illustrates that the insect RyRs share high levels of amino acid sequence identity at the the COOH-terminal region. However, the amino acid residues analogous to the CmRyR residues N⁴⁹²², N⁴⁹²⁴, N⁴⁹³⁵, L⁴⁹⁵⁰, L⁴⁹⁸¹, N⁵⁰¹³ and T⁵⁰⁶⁴ are unique to lepidopteran RyRs compared with non-lepidopteran insect RyRs. This finding suggests that these residues may be involved in the differences in channel properties between lepidopteran and non-lepidopteran insect RyRs and in the species selective toxicity of diamide insecticides. Furthermore, two alternative splicing sites were identified in the CmRyR gene, one of which was located in the central part of the predicted second SPRY domain. Diagnostic PCR showed that the inclusion frequencies of two mutually exclusive exons (a/b) and one optional exon (c) differed between developmental stages or adult anatomical regions. Our results imply that alternative splicing may be a major means of generating functional diversity in C. medinalis RyR channel.