Juteršek Mojca, Gerasymenko Iryna M, Petek Marko, Haumann Elisabeth, Vacas Sandra, Kallam Kalyani, Gianoglio Silvia, Navarro-Llopis Vicente, Heethoff Michael, Fuertes Ismael Navarro, Patron Nicola, Orzáez Diego, Gruden Kristina, Warzecha Heribert, Baebler Špela
National Institute of Biology, Department of Biotechnology and Systems Biology, Večna pot 111, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Jožef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
iScience. 2024 Mar 6;27(4):109441. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109441. eCollection 2024 Apr 19.
Insect physiology and reproduction depend on several terpenoid compounds, whose biosynthesis is mainly unknown. One enigmatic group of insect monoterpenoids are mealybug sex pheromones, presumably resulting from the irregular coupling activity of unidentified isoprenyl diphosphate synthases (IDSs). Here, we performed a comprehensive search for IDS coding sequences of the pest mealybug . We queried the available genomic and newly generated short- and long-read transcriptomic data and identified 18 putative IDS genes, whose phylogenetic analysis indicates several gene family expansion events. testing confirmed regular short-chain coupling activity with five gene products. With the candidate with highest IDS activity, we also detected low amounts of irregular coupling products, and determined amino acid residues important for chain-length preference and irregular coupling activity. This work therefore provides an important foundation for deciphering terpenoid biosynthesis in mealybugs, including the sex pheromone biosynthesis in .
昆虫的生理和繁殖依赖于多种萜类化合物，但其生物合成过程大多未知。粉虱性信息素是一类神秘的昆虫单萜，可能是由未鉴定的异戊二烯基二磷酸合酶（IDSs）的不规则偶联活性产生的。在此，我们对害虫粉虱的IDS编码序列进行了全面搜索。我们查询了现有的基因组数据以及新生成的短读长和长读长转录组数据，鉴定出18个假定的IDS基因，系统发育分析表明发生了几次基因家族扩张事件。功能测试证实了其中五个基因产物具有常规的短链偶联活性。对于具有最高IDS活性的候选基因，我们还检测到了少量的不规则偶联产物，并确定了对链长偏好和不规则偶联活性重要的氨基酸残基。因此，这项工作为破译粉虱中的萜类生物合成，包括其中的性信息素生物合成，提供了重要基础。
