The cytochrome P450 CYP6DE1 catalyzes the conversion of α-pinene into the mountain pine beetle aggregation pheromone trans-verbenol

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Chiu, Christine C.
  • Keeling, Christopher I.
  • Bohlmann, Joerg

• The recent outbreak of the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae; MPB) has afected over 20M hectares of pine forests in western North America. During the colonization of host trees, female MPB release the aggregation pheromone (−)-trans-verbenol. (−)-trans-Verbenol is thought to be
  produced from the pine defense compound (−)-α-pinene by cytochrome P450 (P450) dependent hydroxylation. MPB may also use P450s for the detoxifcation of other monoterpenes of the pine defense system. Here we describe the functional characterization of MPB CYP6DE1. CYP6DE1, but
  not the closely related CYP6DE2, used the bicyclic monoterpenes (−)-α-pinene, (+)-α-pinene, (−)-β-pinene, (+)-β-pinene and (+)-3-carene as substrates. CYP6DE1 was not active with other monoterpenes or diterpene resin acids that were tested as substrates. trans-Verbenol is the major
  product of CYP6DE1 activity with (−)-α-pinene or (+)-α-pinene as substrates. When tested with blends of diferent ratios of (−)-α-pinene and (+)-α-pinene, CYP6DE1 produced trans-verbenol with an enantiomeric profle that was similar to that produced by female MPB exposed to the α-pinene
  enantiomers.

• Date created

  2019-01-01

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Cytochrome P450
  • Alpha-pinene
  • Coleoptera
  • Enzyme system
  • Hydroxylation

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-te6a-yp28

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International