Other hormones likely to be involved in Malpighian tubule function are the leucokinins. Leucokinins are a group of widespread insect hormones. For more information about Malpighian tubule function, see The Drosophila melanogaster Malpighian tubule WWW page , maintained by Julian Dow at the University of Glasgow. In addition, the Dow laboratory maintains a sensitive map illustrating the physiology of Malpighian tubule secretory cells. Larval salivary gland chromosomes undergo a sequential process of gene activation that can be visualized directly.
Gene activation is accompanied by the process of puffing.
Puffing is initiated by Ecdysone receptor activation of target genes. For information about the regulation of this process, see Polytene chromosomes, endoreduplication and puffing . Insect juvenile hormone resistance gene homology with the bHLH-PAS family of transcriptional regulators. 98169444 Davies, S. A., et al. An invertebrate nuclear receptor for juvenile hormones.