Ducker Charles, McKeown Catherine, Da Silva Igor F P, Souza Isis Torres, Pickett John A, Santana Antônio E G, Oldham Neil J
School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Federal University of Alagoas, A. C. Simões Campus, Maceió, AL, 57072-970, Brazil.
Chembiochem. 2025 Jul 9:e2500292. doi: 10.1002/cbic.202500292.
Populations of the sandfly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, use the diterpene sobralene as a sex/aggregation pheromone, which is likely produced in the insect through the activity of a recently discovered noncanonical terpene synthase (TPS). This study shows that the genome of this insect also contains another noncanonical TPS able to produce principally (S)-(+)-nephthenol (isoserratol) from geranylgeranyl diphosphate. This diterpene alcohol does not appear to be produced by the sandfly, nor is the corresponding TPS gene transcribed, hence these findings suggest that insects may be a promising source of TPSs for apparently cryptic terpenoid products.
沙蝇长须罗蛉种群将二萜类化合物sobralene用作性/聚集信息素，这种化合物可能是通过最近发现的一种非经典萜烯合酶（TPS）的活性在昆虫体内产生的。这项研究表明，这种昆虫的基因组还包含另一种非经典TPS，它能够主要从香叶基香叶基二磷酸生成（S）-（+）-萘酚（异锯齿醇）。这种二萜醇似乎不是由沙蝇产生的，相应的TPS基因也不转录，因此这些发现表明，昆虫可能是明显隐秘萜类产物TPS的一个有前景的来源。
