Dopamine receptor 1 (Dop1) mediates locust attraction behaviors, however, the mechanism by which Dop1 modulates this process remains unknown to date. Here, we identify differentially expressed small RNAs associated with locust olfactory attraction after activating and inhibiting Dop1. Small RNA transcriptome analysis and qPCR validation reveal that Dop1 activation and inhibition downregulates and upregulates microRNA-9a (miR-9a) expression, respectively. miR-9a knockdown in solitarious locusts increases their attraction to gregarious volatiles, whereas miR-9a overexpression in gregarious locusts reduces olfactory attraction. Moreover, miR-9a directly targets adenylyl cyclase 2 (ac2), causing its downregulation at the mRNA and protein levels. ac2 responds to Dop1 and mediates locust olfactory attraction. Mechanistically, Dop1 inhibits miR-9a expression through inducing the dissociation of La protein from pre-miR-9a and resulting in miR-9a maturation inhibition. Our results reveal a Dop1-miR-9a-AC2 circuit that modulates locust olfactory attraction underlying aggregation. This study suggests that miRNAs act as key messengers in the GPCR signaling.

中文翻译：

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Dop1通过抑制蝗虫中的miR-9a成熟来增强同种嗅觉的吸引力。

多巴胺受体1（Dop1）介导蝗虫的吸引行为，但是，到目前为止，Dop1调节这一过程的机制仍然未知。在这里，我们确定激活和抑制Dop1后与蝗虫嗅觉吸引相关的差异表达的小RNA。小RNA转录组分析和qPCR验证表明，Dop1激活和抑制分别下调和上调microRNA-9a（miR-9a）表达。独居蝗虫中的miR-9a敲除增加了它们对群居挥发性物质的吸引力，而群居蝗虫中的miR-9a过表达减少了嗅觉吸引。而且，miR-9a直接靶向腺苷酸环化酶2（ac2），从而导致其在mRNA和蛋白质水平上的下调。ac2响应Dop1并介导蝗虫嗅觉吸引。机械上，Dop1通过诱导La蛋白从pre-miR-9a解离并抑制miR-9a的成熟来抑制miR-9a的表达。我们的结果揭示了一个Dop1-miR-9a-AC2电路，该电路可调节聚集作用下的蝗虫嗅觉吸引。这项研究表明，miRNA在GPCR信号转导中起关键信使的作用。