Fig. 4

miR-9a–targeted adenylyl cyclase 2 (ac2) mediates locust preference for gregarious volatiles. a Functional cluster of miR-9a target genes using GO enrichment analysis. b mRNA level of genes in the clusters (P < 0.01) as validated by qPCR (n = 8, Student’s t-test). c Luciferase reporter assays in S2 cells co-transfected with miR-9a overexpression vectors and psiCHECK2 vectors containing binding sites of the target genes (n = 6, Student’s t-test). d Luciferase reporter assays in S2 cells co-transfected with miR-9a overexpression vectors and psiCHECK2 vectors containing wild (WT) or mutant (MT) sequences of target genes (n = 6, Student’s t-test). e Olfactory responses of the solitarious and gregarious locusts injected with dsPhf20l1 (n = 46 and 43) and dsAc2 (n = 40 and 46), respectively. f Olfactory responses of the solitarious and gregarious locusts injected with AC2 agonist (forskolin, n = 44 and 45) and antagonist (SKF83566, n = 48 and 41), respectively. The data in b, c, and d are shown as mean ± SEM, and the data in e and f are shown as p ± SE. The asterisks outside the strip indicate the significant difference between controls and the treatments by G-test for independence (e and f); n.s.: not significant; *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01; S: solitarious, G: gregarious