TITLE:
Comparison of Amino Acid Sequences of Halloween Genes in Spodoptera litura and Spodoptera littoralis
AUTHORS:
Susmita Chatterjee
KEYWORDS:
Halloween Genes, Amino Acid
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.6 No.5,
May
29,
2015
ABSTRACT:
20-Hydroxyecdyone
(20E), an active form of ecdysteroid, is the key hormone in insect growth and
development. To date five P450 enzymes involved in the last four steps of
ecdysteroid biosynthesis from ketodiol to 20E namely Spook (Spo), Phantom
(Phm), Disembodied (Dib), Shadow (Sad) and Shade (Shd) related to ecdysteroid
biosynthesis, are identified and the character of last four enzymes is well
studied in Drosophila melanogaster, Bombyx mori and Manduca
sexta. All of these genes are called Halloween genes. In this study, we
extended these works to a major pest insect in agriculture in India, the cotton
leafworm Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). We identified the sequence of five Halloween
genes partially and converted into amino acid sequences and then three of them
were compared with a very near African species of Spodoptera, Spodoptera
littoralis. The results suggest amino acid substitution
in open reading frame of phantom, shade and disembodied protein in Spodoptera litura.