| Title: | The role of desaturases in the biosynthesis of marking pheromones in bumblebee males |
| Author(s): | Bucek A; Vogel H; Matouskova P; Prchalova D; Zacek P; Vrkoslav V; Sebesta P; Svatos A; Jahn U; Valterova I; Pichova I; |
| Address: | "Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. Flemingovo n. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ibmb.2013.05.003 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-0240 (Electronic) 0965-1748 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Bumblebee males (Hymenoptera) produce species-specific labial gland secretions called marking pheromones (MPs). MPs generally consist of terpenoids and fatty-acid-derived aliphatic compounds with various chain lengths predominantly containing one or no double bonds. The unsaturated fatty-acid-derived MP components were hypothesized to be produced by fatty acid desaturases (FADs) that exhibit diverse substrate specificities. To address this hypothesis, we isolated and functionally characterized FADs from three bumblebee species: Bombus lucorum, Bombus terrestris, and Bombus lapidarius. By employing RNA sequencing of the male labial glands and fat bodies of B. lucorum and B. terrestris, we identified five paralogous FAD-like sequences but only two FAD lineages were abundant and differentially expressed in the labial glands. We found that abundant FAD lineages were also expressed in the labial gland and fat body of Bombus lapidarius. Functional characterization of FADs in a yeast expression system confirmed that Delta4-FADs exhibited a unique Delta4-desaturase activity exclusively on 14-carbon fatty acyls and Delta9-FADs displayed Delta9-desaturase activity on 14- to 18-carbon fatty acyls. These results indicate that Delta9-FADs are involved in the biosynthesis of major unsaturated components of MPs in B. lucorum and B. lapidarius despite the diverse MP composition of these bumblebee species. The contribution of lipases, acyltransferases, esterases, and fatty acid reductases to production of the species-specific MP composition is also discussed in light of the transcriptomic data obtained in this study" |
| Keywords: | "Animals Bees/*enzymology/genetics Fatty Acid Desaturases/isolation & purification/*metabolism Insect Proteins/isolation & purification/*metabolism Male Pheromones/*biosynthesis Phylogeny Sequence Analysis, DNA Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase/metabolism Bumblebee;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineBucek, Ales Vogel, Heiko Matouskova, Petra Prchalova, Darina Zacek, Petr Vrkoslav, Vladimir Sebesta, Petr Svatos, Ales Jahn, Ullrich Valterova, Irena Pichova, Iva eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2013/06/04 Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2013 Aug; 43(8):724-31. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2013.05.003. Epub 2013 May 29" |
