Pheromone Biosynthesis in Bark Beetles: Characterization of the Terminal Steps that Determine Ipsdienol Stereochemistry

树皮甲虫是北美最重要的经济害虫之一，每年导致数十亿板英尺的木材损失，并增加了燃料负荷，导致了过去几十年美国西部毁灭性的野火。该项目的长期目标是开发基于信息素系统的新的有效的害虫管理策略。除了短暂的信息素引导飞行外，树皮甲虫一生中的大部分时间都在它们殖民和杀死的树皮下度过。信息素对于甲虫发动导致树木死亡的“大规模攻击”是必不可少的。这项提案中描述的工作旨在了解树皮甲虫产生信息素的生化过程。树皮甲虫通过调动和上调甲氧戊酸途径的酶，以及通过专门化解毒树木防御化学物质的酶，在中肠产生信息素成分。这两个过程由一种新的酶连接在一起，这种酶具有两种功能，并产生树皮甲虫主要信息素成分的前体。本提案中描述的工作旨在描述这种新型酶的特性以及信息素生产中的其他末端步骤。这笔助学金将用于培训一名博士后研究员和一名研究生，几名本科生也将在完成高级论文工作后参与该项目。

Bark beetles are among the most significant economic pests in North America, causing the loss of billions of board feet of timber each year and adding to the fuel load that contributed to the devastating wild fires in the western U.S. over the past several decades. The long term goal of this project is to develop new and effective pest management tactics based on pheromone systems. Except for a brief pheromone directed flight, bark beetles spend the majority of their lives protected beneath the bark of the trees they colonize and kill. Pheromones are essential for beetles to mount the 'mass attack' that leads to tree death. The work described in this proposal is designed to gain an understanding of the biochemical processes by which bark beetles produce pheromones. Bark beetles produce pheromone components in the midgut by mobilizing and up-regulating the enzymes of the mevalonate pathway and by specialization of the enzymes that detoxify tree defensive chemicals. These two processes are connected by a novel enzyme that serves two functions and produces the precursor to the major pheromone components of bark beetles. The work described in this proposal is designed to characterize this novel enzyme and to characterize other terminal steps in pheromone production. This grant will be used to train one post-doctoral fellow and one graduate student, and several undergraduates will also work on the project as they complete their senior thesis work.