Jiang, H.Kim, D.Dobesh, S.Evans, J. D.Nachman, R. J.Kaczmarek, K.Zabrocki, J.Park, Yoonseong2016-09-192016-09-192016-01-28http://hdl.handle.net/2097/33944Citation: Jiang, H., Kim, D., Dobesh, S., Evans, J. D., Nachman, R. J., Kaczmarek, K., . . . Park, Y. (2016). Ligand selectivity in tachykinin and natalisin neuropeptidergic systems of the honey bee parasitic mite Varroa destructor. Scientific Reports, 6, 8. doi:10.1038/srep19547The varroa mite, Varroa destructor, is a devastating ectoparasite of the honey bees Apis mellifera and A. cerana. Control of these mites in beehives is a challenge in part due to the lack of toxic agents that are specific to mites and not to the host honey bee. In searching for a specific toxic target of varroa mites, we investigated two closely related neuropeptidergic systems, tachykinin-related peptide (TRP) and natalisin (NTL), and their respective receptors. Honey bees lack both NTL and the NTL receptor in their genome sequences, providing the rationale for investigating these receptors to understand their specificities to various ligands. We characterized the receptors for NTL and TRP of V. destructor (VdNTL-R and VdTRP-R, respectively) and for TRP of A. mellifera (AmTRP-R) in a heterologous reporter assay system to determine the activities of various ligands including TRP/NTL peptides and peptidomimetics. Although we found that AmTRP-R is highly promiscuous, activated by various ligands including two VdNTL peptides when a total of 36 ligands were tested, we serendipitously found that peptides carrying the C-terminal motif-FWxxRamide are highly specific to VdTRP-R. This motif can serve as a seed sequence for designing a VdTRP-R-specific agonist.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Tick Ixodes-ScapularisFunctional-CharacterizationInsectNeuropeptidesLocustatachykinin-IDiapause HormoneText