Flavin-dependent monooxygenases as a detoxification mechanism in insects: new insights from the arctiids (lepidoptera).

ABSTRACT: Insects experience a wide array of chemical pressures from plant allelochemicals and pesticides and have developed several effective counterstrategies to cope with such toxins. Among these, cytochrome P450 monooxygenases are crucial in plant-insect interactions. Flavin-dependent monooxygenases (FMOs) seem not to play a central role in xenobiotic detoxification in insects, in contrast to mammals. However, the previously identified senecionine N-oxygenase of the arctiid moth Tyria jacobaeae (Lepidoptera) indicates that FMOs have been recruited during the adaptation of this insect to plants that accumulate toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Identification of related FMO-like sequences of various arctiids and other Lepidoptera and their combination with expressed sequence tag (EST) data and sequen

SUBMITTER: Sehlmeyer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2862711 | biostudies-literature | 2010 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature