Jiao Zhou, Haolin Zhang, Juan Li, Xia Sheng, Shixiang Zong, Youqing Luo, Kentaro Nagaoka, Qiang Weng, Gen Watanabe, Kazuyoshi Taya
Journal of Insect Science 13 (56), 1-13, (1 June 2013) https://doi.org/10.1673/031.013.5601
KEYWORDS: ecdysteroid, prothoracic gland, Q-RT-PCR, spook
20-Hydroxyecdyone, an active form of ecdysteroid, is the key hormone in insect growth and development. Halloween genes encode ecdysteroidogenic enzymes, including cytochrome P450 monooxygenase. CYP307A1 (spook) is accepted as an enzyme acting in the so-called ‘black box’ that includes a series of hypothetical and unproven reactions that finally result in the oxidation of 7-dehydrocholesterol to diketol. In this study, the Holcocerus hippophaecolus Hua (Lepidoptera: Cossidae) CYP307A1 (HhSpo) gene was identified and characterized. The obtained cDNA sequence was 2084 base pairs with an open reading frame of 537 animo acids, in which existed conserved motifs of CYP450 enzymes. The transcript profiles of HhSpo were analyzed in various tissues of final instar larvae. The highest expression was observed in the prothoracic gland, while expression level was low but significant in other tissues. These results suggest that the sequence character and expression profile of HhSpo were well conserved and provided the basic information for its functional analysis.