Study on a factor in silkglands that suppresses defense responses of plants during infestation

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We found an activity to suppress formation of green leaf volatiles in the silk gland of silkworms. After purification, we obtained a protein of 31 kDa, that showed high fatty acid hydroperoxide dehydratase activity. When various isomers of substrates were used, the enzyme showed very strict substrate specificity to 13S-ZE isomer. In fact, this isomer is the one accountable to formation of green leaf volatiles in plants. From these observation, it was suggested that the enzyme is not only the antioxidative enzyme but probably involved in oxylipin metabolism either in plants or in the insects. When we analyzed the gene encoding the enzyme, we found it was a gene that had not been assigned. We are now trying to get a transgenic silkworm that has deletion of the gene, thereafter, we will be able to see the physiological and ecological significances of the enzyme activity for silkworms.