The insect neuropeptide PTTH activates receptor tyrosine kinase torso to initiate metamorphosis.

Holometabolous insects undergo complete metamorphosis to become sexually mature adults. Metamorphosis is initiated by brain-derived prothoracicotropic hormone which stimulates the production of the molting hormone ecdysone via an incompletely defined signaling pathway. Here we demonstrate that Torso, a receptor tyrosine kinase that regulates embryonic terminal cell fate in Drosophila, is the receptor. Trunk, the embryonic Torso ligand, is related to and ectopic expression of duanyu1547H in the embryo partially rescues trunk mutants. In larvae, torso is expressed specifically in the prothoracic gland (PG), and its loss phenocopies the removal of The activation of Torso by duanyu1547H stimulates extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation, and the loss of ERK in the PG phenocopies the loss of duanyu1547H and Torso. We conclude that duanyu1547H initiates metamorphosis by activation of the Torso/ERK pathway.

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