Function Analysis of Cholesterol 7-Desaturase in Ovarian Maturation and Molting in : Providing Evidence for Reproductive Molting Progress.

The Cholesterol 7-desaturase gene plays an important role in insect ecdysone synthesis, but its role in ovarian development has not been reported. In this study, characteristics and the phylogenetic relationship of Cholesterol 7-desaturase were identified by bioinformatics. qPCR showed that the gene was highly expressed in the ovary, which was much higher than that in other tissues, and the expression level of reached the highest level at the third stage of the ovarian development stage (O-III). During embryonic development, the gene expression was highest in the zoea stage. The function of the gene was explored by RNA interference. The experimental group was injected with dsRNA through the pericardial cavity of , while the control group was injected with the same volume of . Statistical analysis of gonadal development and GSI calculation showed that the silencing of - resulted in the suppression of gonadal development. In addition, the molting frequency of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group during the second molting cycle after silencing . On the seventh day after silencing, ecdysone content in the experimental group was significantly reduced. These results demonstrated that the gene played a dual role in ovarian maturation and molting of .