Cuticular Pro-phenoloxidase of the Silkworm, Bombyx mori

Abstract

Pro-phenoloxidase (proPO) in insects is implicated in the defense against microbes and wounding. The presence of proPO in the cuticle was suggested more than 30 years ago, but it has not been purified. The extract of cuticles of the silkworm, Bombyx mori, was shown to contain two proPO isoforms (F-type and S-type proPOs, which have slightly different mobilities in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nondenaturing conditions). The two isoforms were purified to homogeneity. From hemolymph of the same insect, two types of proPO with the same electrophoretic mobilities as those of cuticular isoforms were separated and were shown to be different at five amino acid residues in one of their subunits. The isoforms in the hemolymph and cuticle were activated by a specific activating enzyme. The resulting active phenoloxidases exhibited almost the same substrate specificities and specific activities toward odiphenols. The substrate specificities and the susceptibilities to inhibitors, including carbon monoxide, indicated that the purified proPO isoforms were not zymogens of laccase-type phenoloxidase. The proPO in hemolymph was shown to be transported to the cuticle. This demonstration was corroborated by the failure to detect proPO transcripts by Northern analysis of total RNA from epidermal cells. In reversed-phase column chromatography, cuticular and hemolymph proPOs gave distinct elution profiles, indicating that some yet to be identified modification occurs in hemolymph proPO and results in the formation of cuticular proPO. There was little transportation of cuticular proPO to the cuticle when it was injected into the hemocoel. The nature of the modification is described in the accompanying paper (Asano, T., and Ashida, M. (2001) J. Biol. Chem. 276, 11113-11125).

Porphyromonas gingivalis Peptidoglycans Induce Excessive Activation of the Innate Immune System in Silkworm Larvae*

“…Moreover, the in vitro PO activity was inhibited by PTU (Fig. 3A), consistent with a previous report (27). We further tested the stimulatory effect of pPG on melanization in vivo.…”

Purification and characterisation of phenoloxidase from amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense

“…This is similar to the enzymes from the haemocytes of Penaeus californiensis and Pacifastacus leniusculus, and from the egg masses of Biomphalaria glabrata [22,47,49]. Fig.…”

Sequencing and characterization of two cDNAs putatively encoding prophenoloxidases in the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae)

“…In A. subalbatus at least five distinct PPOs have been identified and the genomes of Drosophila melanogaster and Manduca sexta have three PO genes. However, only two cDNAs encoding PPOs have been reported in most of other lepidopteran insects, for example Hyphantria cunea (Park et al 1997), B. mori (Asano and Ashida 2001), H. virescens (Shelby and Popham 2008) and C. fumiferana (Doucet et al 2008). In our study, by using native-PAGE and coloration with standard substrate L-dopa, we found that P. xylostella also has two PPO isoenzymes, PxPPO1 and PxPPO2, which was further proved by sequencing of their cDNA.…”