The role of desaturases in the biosynthesis of marking pheromones in bumblebee males
Language English Country England, Great Britain Media print-electronic
Document type Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PubMed
23727612
DOI
10.1016/j.ibmb.2013.05.003
PII: S0965-1748(13)00086-6
Knihovny.cz E-resources
- Keywords
- Bumblebee, DMDS, Et, FA, FAD, FAEE, FAR, FB, Fatty acid desaturase, Functional expression, GC/MS, Hymenoptera, LG, MP, Me, ORF, Pheromone, RNA-seq, RPKM, TM, dimethyl disulfide, ethyl ester, fat body, fatty acid, fatty acid desaturase, fatty acid ethyl ester, fatty acid reductase, gas chromatography – mass spectrometry, labial gland, marking pheromone, methylester, open reading frame, qPCR, reads per kilobase of exon model per million mapped reads, real-time quantitative PCR, trans-membrane,
- MeSH
- Fatty Acid Desaturases isolation & purification metabolism MeSH
- Pheromones biosynthesis MeSH
- Phylogeny MeSH
- Insect Proteins isolation & purification metabolism MeSH
- Sequence Analysis, DNA MeSH
- Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase metabolism MeSH
- Bees enzymology genetics MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Male MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Fatty Acid Desaturases MeSH
- Pheromones MeSH
- Insect Proteins MeSH
- Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase MeSH
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 Δ4-FADs exhibited a unique Δ4-desaturase activity exclusively on 14-carbon fatty acyls and Δ9-FADs displayed Δ9-desaturase activity on 14- to 18-carbon fatty acyls. These results indicate that Δ9-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.
References provided by Crossref.org
Evolution of Linoleic Acid Biosynthesis Paved the Way for Ecological Success of Termites
Production of Long Chain Fatty Alcohols Found in Bumblebee Pheromones by Yarrowia lipolytica
Expansion of the fatty acyl reductase gene family shaped pheromone communication in Hymenoptera
Characterization of neutral lipase BT-1 isolated from the labial gland of Bombus terrestris males
