Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Qiu Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3443174 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Qiu Yue Y Tittiger Claus C Wicker-Thomas Claude C Le Goff Gaëlle G Young Sharon S Wajnberg Eric E Fricaux Thierry T Taquet Nathalie N Blomquist Gary J GJ Feyereisen René R
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20120827 37
Insects use hydrocarbons as cuticular waterproofing agents and as contact pheromones. Although their biosynthesis from fatty acyl precursors is well established, the last step of hydrocarbon biosynthesis from long-chain fatty aldehydes has remained mysterious. We show here that insects use a P450 enzyme of the CYP4G family to oxidatively produce hydrocarbons from aldehydes. Oenocyte-directed RNAi knock-down of Drosophila CYP4G1 or NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase results in flies deficient in cut ...[more]