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Insights into the molecular mechanism of yellow cuticle coloration by a chitin-binding carotenoprotein in gregarious locusts.

ABSTRACT: Carotenoids are hydrophobic pigments binding to diverse carotenoproteins, many of which remain unexplored. Focusing on yellow gregarious locusts accumulating cuticular carotenoids, here we use engineered Escherichia coli cells to reconstitute a functional water-soluble β-carotene-binding protein, BBP. HPLC and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that recombinant BBP avidly binds β-carotene, inducing the unusual vibronic structure of its absorbance spectrum, just like native BBP extracted from the locust cuticles. Bound to recombinant BBP, β-carotene exhibits pronounced circular dichroism and allows BBP to withstand heating (T_0.5 = 68 °C), detergents and pH variations. Using bacteria producing distinct xanthophylls we demonstrate that, while β-carotene is the preferred carotenoid, BBP can also extract from membranes ketocarotenoids and, very poorly, hydroxycarotenoids. We show that BBP-carotenoid complex reversibly binds to chitin, but not to chitosan, implying the role for chitin acetyl groups in cuticular BBP deposition. Reconstructing such locust coloration mechanism in vitro paves the way for structural studies and BBP applications.

SUBMITTER: Egorkin NA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11009388 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Insights into the molecular mechanism of yellow cuticle coloration by a chitin-binding carotenoprotein in gregarious locusts.

Egorkin Nikita A NA Dominnik Eva E EE Maksimov Eugene G EG Sluchanko Nikolai N NN

Communications biology 20240411 1

Carotenoids are hydrophobic pigments binding to diverse carotenoproteins, many of which remain unexplored. Focusing on yellow gregarious locusts accumulating cuticular carotenoids, here we use engineered Escherichia coli cells to reconstitute a functional water-soluble β-carotene-binding protein, BBP. HPLC and Raman spectroscopy confirmed that recombinant BBP avidly binds β-carotene, inducing the unusual vibronic structure of its absorbance spectrum, just like native BBP extracted from the locus ...[more]

PMID: 38605243

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Project description:Desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) show an extreme form of phenotypic plasticity and can transform between a cryptic solitarious phase and a swarming gregarious phase. The two phases differ extensively in behavior, morphology and physiology but very little is known about the molecular basis of these differences. We used our recently generated Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) database derived from S. gregaria central nervous system (CNS) to design oligonucleotide microarrays and compare the expression of thousands of genes in the CNS of long-term gregarious and solitarious adult desert locusts. This identified 214 differentially expressed genes, of which 40% have been annotated to date. These include genes encoding proteins that are associated with CNS development and modeling, sensory perception, stress response and resistance, and fundamental cellular processes. Our microarray analysis has identified genes whose altered expression may enable locusts of either phase to deal with the different challenges they face. Genes for heat shock proteins and proteins which confer protection from infection were upregulated in gregarious locusts, which may allow them to respond to acute physiological challenges. By contrast the longer-lived solitarious locusts appear to be more strongly protected from the slowly accumulating effects of ageing by an upregulation of genes related to anti-oxidant systems, detoxification and anabolic renewal. Gregarious locusts also had a greater abundance of transcripts for proteins involved in sensory processing and in nervous system development and plasticity. Gregarious locusts live in a more complex sensory environment than solitarious locusts and may require a greater turnover of proteins involved in sensory transduction, and possibly greater neuronal plasticity. Two condition experiment: Solitarious central nervous system (CNS) vs gregarious CNS. 6 biological repeats per condition, balanced over 3 male and 3 females samples. The overall experimental design consisted of two identical repeats of an n+2 A-optimal design, organized per sex (n=6 per sex, 3 solitarious - 3 gregarious samples)

Dataset Information

Insights into the molecular mechanism of yellow cuticle coloration by a chitin-binding carotenoprotein in gregarious locusts.

Publications

Insights into the molecular mechanism of yellow cuticle coloration by a chitin-binding carotenoprotein in gregarious locusts.

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