茶尺蠖几丁质合成酶基因克隆及其在表皮中的表达

Ectropis obliqua Prout is a major pest in tea fields and chitin synthase (CHS) plays an important role in biosynthesis of chitin and growth of the pest. A cDNA sequence encoding the CHS and its expression pattern during development of E. obliqua were investigated. The CHS cDNA sequence was 5496 bp nucleotides, with an open reading frame of 4692 bp encoding a protein of 1563 amino acids. It belonged to CHS-A member of CHS gene family. The CHS-A expression was the strongest in the third and fourth instar larvae, during which the growth rate of E. obliqua larvae was the rapidest. Catalysis model of CHS-A enzyme in E. obliqua was also hypothesized according to the specific motifs and topological structure prediction of the protein. This study provided an important information for the further research on development of RNA interference (RNAi) technology to control E. obliqua.