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Terminal fatty-acyl-CoA desaturase involved in sex pheromone biosynthesis in the Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata)

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Author

Summary, in English

The Winter Moth (Operophtera brumata L., Lepidoptera: Geometridae) utilizes a single hydrocarbon, 1,Z3,Z6,Z9-nonadecatetraene, as its sex pheromone. We tested the hypothesis that a fatty acid precursor, Z11,Z14,Z17,19-nonadecanoic acid, is biosynthesized from α-linolenic acid, through chain elongation by one 2-carbon unit, and subsequent methyl-terminus desaturation. Our results show that labeled α-linolenic acid is indeed incorporated into the pheromone component in vivo. A fatty-acyl-CoA desaturase gene that we found to be expressed in the abdominal epidermal tissue, the presumed site of biosynthesis for type II pheromones, was characterized and expressed heterologously in a yeast system. The transgenic yeast expressing this insect derived gene could convert Z11,Z14,Z17-eicosatrienoic acid into Z11,Z14,Z17,19-eicosatetraenoic acid. These results provide evidence that a terminal desaturation step is involved in the winter moth pheromone biosynthesis, prior to the decarboxylation.

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

715-722

Publication/Series

Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Volume

41

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Biological Sciences
  • Zoology

Status

Published

Project

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

Research group

  • Pheromone Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1879-0240