Tsubota T, Minakuchi C, Nakakura T, Shinoda T, Shiotsuki T
Invertebrate Gene Function Research Unit, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan.
Insect Mol Biol. 2010 Aug;19(4):527-35. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2583.2010.01019.x. Epub 2010 Jun 2.
Juvenile hormone esterases (JHEs) are required for the degradation of juvenile hormones (JHs) in insects. Here, we report the cloning and analysis of the jhe gene in the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, a model insect of Coleoptera. The Tcjhe gene was strongly expressed at the final instar larva, as would be expected if it functioned to decrease the JH titer at this stage. A recombinant TcJHE protein efficiently degraded JH III, suggesting that the enzyme functions in vivo as a JH-specific degradation enzyme. This is the first report describing the developmental expression profile of the jhe gene whose enzymatic activity was shown in Coleoptera, and the new data reported here will aid elucidation of the mechanism of JH titer regulation in insects.
保幼激素酯酶（JHEs）是昆虫体内降解保幼激素（JHs）所必需的。在此，我们报告了赤拟谷盗（Tribolium castaneum）（鞘翅目模式昆虫）中jhe基因的克隆与分析。Tcjhe基因在末龄幼虫期强烈表达，若其在此阶段发挥降低保幼激素滴度的作用，这种表达情况是可以预期的。重组TcJHE蛋白能有效降解保幼激素III，这表明该酶在体内作为一种保幼激素特异性降解酶发挥作用。这是首次描述鞘翅目昆虫中jhe基因的发育表达谱且展示其酶活性的报告，本文所报道的新数据将有助于阐明昆虫中保幼激素滴度调控的机制。
