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Neofunctionalization in an ancestral insect desaturase lineage led to rare Delta(6) pheromone signals in the Chinese tussah silkworm

Author

Summary, in English

The Chinese tussah silkworm, Antheraea pernyi (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) produces a rare dienoic sex pheromone composed of (E,Z)-6,11-hexadecadienal, (E,Z)-6,11-hexadecadienyl acetate and (E,Z)-4,9-tetradecadienyl acetate, and for which the biosynthetic routes are yet unresolved. By means of gland composition analyses and in vivo labeling we evidenced that pheromone biosynthesis towards the immediate dienoic gland precursor, the (E,Z)-6,11-hexadecadienoic acid, involves desaturation steps with Delta(6) and Delta(11) regioselectivity. cDNA cloning of pheromone gland desaturases and heterologous expression in yeast demonstrated that the 6,11-dienoic pheromone is generated from two biosynthetic routes implicating a Delta(6) and Delta(11) desaturase duo albeit with an inverted reaction order. The two desaturases first catalyze the formation of the (E)-6-hexadecenoic acid or (Z)-11-hexadecenoic acid, key mono-unsaturated biosynthetic intermediates. Subsequently, each enzyme is able to produce the (E,Z)-6,11-hexadecadienoic acid by accommodating its non-respective mono-unsaturated product. Besides elucidating an unusually flexible pheromone biosynthetic pathway, our data provide the first identification of a biosynthetic Delta(6) desaturase involved in insect mate communication. The occurrence of this novel Delta(6) desaturase function is consistent with an evolutionary scenario involving neo-functionalization of an ancestral desaturase belonging to a gene lineage different from the Delta11-desaturases commonly involved in moth pheromone biosynthesis.

Publishing year

2010

Language

English

Pages

742-751

Publication/Series

Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Volume

40

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Zoology
  • Biological Sciences

Status

Published

Project

  • The pheromone brewery
  • Evolutionary mechanisms of pheromone divergence in Lepidoptera

Research group

  • Pheromone Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1879-0240