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. 2022 Mar 8;11:e74581. doi: 10.7554/eLife.74581

Figure 1. Olfactory signals from gregarious male adults trigger the synchrony of female sexual maturation in locusts.

(A) Distribution of the first oviposition time of gregarious and solitarious phases. The first oviposition date was recorded after 6 days post adult eclosion (PAE 6 days) when individuals began to mate. To ensure the consistency of mating time in gregarious and solitarious locusts, females that did not successfully mate with 24 hr after pairing were excluded. For gregarious locusts, females were individually marked, and their first oviposition times were recorded by collecting egg pods every 4 hr per day after mating. Females those laid new eggs could be easily distinguished by much thinner abdomen with white foam around ovipositor. Ages of first oviposition were indicated by days post eclosion. (B) The maturity of gregarious and solitarious females from PAE 2 to 8 days. The sexual maturity was presented as the length of terminal oocyte relative to the final mature size. (C) The maturity of gregarious females reared with gregarious males or females, separately. (D) The maturity of solitarious females reared with solitarious males or females, separately. (E) The maturity of gregarious females stimulated by volatiles released from gregarious males or females. (F) The maturity of solitarious females stimulated by volatiles released from gregarious or solitarious males. (G) Distribution of the first oviposition time in wild-type (WT) females and Orco female mutants (Orco-/-). (H) The maturity of WT females and Orco-/- females reared with gregarious males. (I) The maturity of WT females and Orco-/- females stimulated by volatiles released from gregarious males. Only virgin females were used in all experiments refer to sexual maturation examination. Dark lines in violin plots indicate median value. White dotted lines indicate upper and lower quartiles, respectively. Consistency analysis was analyzed using Levene’s test. The number of biological replicates and p values were shown in the figures.

Figure 1—source data 1. Raw data for first oviposition time and sexual maturity of gregarious, solitarious, and Orco-/- female adults.

Figure 1.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1. Comparison of sexual maturation rate of gregarious and solitarious females.

Figure 1—figure supplement 1.

The maturity of terminal oocytes in gregarious and solitarious females were measured from post adult eclosion (PAE) 2 to 8 days. Data were analyzed using Student’s t-test. The number of biological replicates and p values were shown in the figures.
Figure 1—figure supplement 1—source data 1. Raw data for maturation rate of females between gregarious and solitarious phases.
Figure 1—figure supplement 2. Schematic diagram of the stimulation experiments for females of the migratory locust.

Figure 1—figure supplement 2.

(A) Ten gregarious females were reared with 10 gregarious males or 10 gregarious females after emergence, respectively. (B) One solitarious female was reared with one solitarious male or one solitarious female after emergence, respectively. (C) Ten gregarious females were separately reared with 10 gregarious males or 10 gregarious females by a breathable partition after emergence. (D) One solitarious female was separately reared with 10 gregarious males or 10 solitarious males by a breathable partition after emergence. (E) Five Or mutant females (Orco-/- or Or35-/-) were reared with five gregarious wild-type (WT) females and 10 gregarious WT males from post adult eclosion (PAE) 1 to 6 days. (F) Five Or mutant females (Orco-/- or Or35-/-) and five gregarious WT females were separately reared with 10 gregarious WT males by a breathable partition from PAE 1 to 6 days.