Investigating the Roles of Small RNAs in the Regulation of Diapause in the Colorado Potato Beetle

• Applicant: Gözde Güney
• Subject Area: Animal Physiology and Biochemistry
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 573363460

Diapause is a hormonally regulated dormancy that enables insects to survive adverse conditions by halting development, suppressing metabolism, and building energy reserves. Despite extensive transcriptomic studies identifying diapause-associated genes, the functions of regulatory small RNAs (sRNAs), including microRNAs (miRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), piwi‐interacting RNAs (piRNAs), and tRNA‐derived small RNAs (tsRNAs), remain poorly understood, particularly in the Colorado potato beetle (CPB, Leptinotarsa decemlineata). This project aims to (1) comprehensively profile RISC‐bound sRNAs in whole bodies, the fat body, and the brain across non-diapause, pre-diapause, diapause, and post-diapause stages; (2) assign diapause-associated sRNAs to their biogenesis pathways via targeted RNA interference knockdown of key enzymes and validate through degradome and rRNA-depleted RNA sequencing; and (3) functionally characterize these pathways by assessing impacts on metabolic rate, lipid/protein/carbohydrate composition, survival, feeding behavior, fertility, and transposon copy number. This study will elucidate sRNA-mediated regulation of diapause, reveal novel targets for eco-friendly pest control, and establish a foundation for future research in diapause regulation.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position