| Title: | "Functional identification of fatty acyl reductases in female pheromone gland and tarsi of the corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea" |
| Author(s): | Dou X; Zhang A; Jurenka R; |
| Address: | "Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50010, USA. Invasive Insect Biocontrol and Behavior Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD, 20705, USA. Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50010, USA. Electronic address: rjurenka@iastate.edu" |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ibmb.2019.103260 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1879-0240 (Electronic) 0965-1748 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Most moths utilize sex pheromones released by the female to attract a mate. Females produce the sex pheromone in the pheromone gland in a biosynthetic pathway which consists of several key enzymes. Fatty acyl-CoA reductase is one of the key enzymes, which catalyzes the conversion of fatty acyl-CoA to the corresponding alcohol, playing an important role in producing the final proportion of each pheromone component. In Helicoverpa zea, (Z)-11-hexadecenal is the major sex pheromone component in female pheromone glands and previously a large amount of hexadecanal was also found in female and male tarsi. In our previous study, we compared the transcriptome between pheromone glands and tarsi and found 20 fatty acyl-CoA reductases in both tissues. In this study, we functionally characterized four FARs which were expressed at high levels according to the transcriptome of pheromone glands and tarsi. Fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1 was homologous to other moth pheromone gland specific fatty acyl-CoA reductases, and it was also present in male tarsi. Functional expression in yeast cells indicates that only fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1 was able to produce fatty alcohols. In addition, a decreased mRNA level of fatty acyl-CoA reductase 1 in female pheromone glands and male tarsi by RNAi knockdown caused a significant decrease in the production of (Z)-11-hexadecenal in pheromone glands and hexadecanal in male tarsi. This study is the first to demonstrate the direct function of a fatty acyl-CoA reductase in male tarsi and also confirms its role in sex pheromone biosynthesis in H. zea" |
| Keywords: | Aldehyde Oxidoreductases/chemistry/*genetics/metabolism Aldehydes/metabolism Amino Acid Sequence Animals Ankle Exocrine Glands/chemistry Female Insect Proteins/chemistry/*genetics/metabolism Larva/growth & development/metabolism Male Moths/growth & develo; |
| Notes: | "MedlineDou, Xiaoyi Zhang, Aijun Jurenka, Russell eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. England 2019/11/05 Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2020 Jan; 116:103260. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2019.103260. Epub 2019 Nov 1" |
