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，每年造成数十亿板英尺的木材损失，并增加燃料负荷，导致过去几十年美国西部毁灭性的野火。该项目的长期目标是基于信息素系统开发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木的树皮下受到保护。信息素对甲虫发动导致树木死亡的“大规模攻击”至关重要。本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羟戊酸途径的酶，以及对树木防御化学物质进行解毒的酶的专业化，在中肠产生信息素成分。这两个过程是由一种具有两种功能的新型酶连接起来的，这种酶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表征这种新型酶，并表征信息素生产中的其他终端步骤。该基金将用于培养一名博士后和一名研究生，以及几名本科生在完成其毕业论文工作时也将参与该项目。

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.