Silencing D. melanogaster lgr1 impairs transition from larval to pupal stage

• Silencing lgr1 impairs pupariation in Drosophila melanogaster.
• Lgr1 silenced larvae display low ecdysteroid titers and low transcript levels of spok and sad.
• Lgr1 silenced larvae show decreased transcript levels for sgs4 and ilp6 and weigh less than control larvae.
• Transcript profiles were determined for Drosophila melanogaster lgr1, gpa2 and gpb5.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play key roles in a wide diversity of physiological processes and signalling pathways. The leucine-rich repeats containing GPCRs (LGRs) are a subfamily that is well-conserved throughout most metazoan phyla and have important regulatory roles in vertebrates. Here, we report on the critical role of Drosophila melanogaster LGR1, the fruit fly homologue of the vertebrate glycoprotein hormone receptors, in development as a factor involved in the regulation of pupariation. Transcript profiling revealed that lgr1 transcripts are most abundant in third instar larvae and adult flies. The tissues displaying the highest transcript levels were the hindgut, the rectum and the salivary glands. Knockdown using RNA interference (RNAi) demonstrated that white pupa formation was severely suppressed in D. melanogaster lgr1 RNAi larvae. Associated with this developmental defect was a reduced ecdysteroid titer, which is in line with significantly reduced transcript levels detected for the Halloween genes shadow (sad) and spookier (spok) in the third instar lgr1 RNAi larvae compared to the control condition.