Charles Ducker, Cameron Baines, Jennifer Guy, Antônio Euzébio Goulart Santana, John A Pickett, Neil J Oldham
The phlebotomine sandfly, Lutzomyia longipalpis , a major vector of the Leishmania parasite, uses terpene pheromones to attract conspecifics for mating. Examination of the L. longipalpis genome revealed a putative terpene synthase (TPS), which-upon heterologous expression in, and purification from, Escherichia coli -yielded a functional enzyme. The TPS, termed Ll TPS, converted geranyl diphosphate (GPP) into a mixture of monoterpenes with low efficiency, of which β-ocimene was the major product. ( E,E )-farnesyl diphosphate (FPP) principally produced small amounts of ( E )-β-farnesene, while ( Z,E )- and ( Z,Z )-FPP yielded a mixture of bisabolene isomers...
March 19, 2024: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America