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Analysis of the agrotis segetum pheromone gland transcriptome in the light of Sex pheromone biosynthesis

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Genomics, September 2015
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (87th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

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Title
Analysis of the agrotis segetum pheromone gland transcriptome in the light of Sex pheromone biosynthesis
Published in
BMC Genomics, September 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12864-015-1909-2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Bao-Jian Ding, Christer Löfstedt

Abstract

Moths rely heavily on pheromone communication for mate finding. The pheromone components of most moths are modified from the products of normal fatty acid metabolism by a set of tissue-specific enzymes. The turnip moth, Agrotis segetum uses a series of homologous fatty-alcohol acetate esters ((Z)-5-decenyl, (Z)-7-dodecenyl, and (Z)-9 tetradecenyl acetate) as its sex pheromone components. The ratio of the components differs between populations, making this species an interesting subject for studies of the enzymes involved in the biosynthetic pathway and their influence on sex pheromone variation. Illumina sequencing and comparative analysis of the transcriptomes of the pheromone gland and abdominal epidermal tissue, enabled us to identify genes coding for putative key enzymes involved in the pheromone biosynthetic pathway, such as fatty acid synthase, β-oxidation enzymes, fatty-acyl desaturases (FAD), fatty-acyl reductases (FAR), and acetyltransferases. We functionally assayed the previously identified ∆11-desaturase [GenBank: ES583599, JX679209] and FAR [GenBank: JX679210] and candidate acetyltransferases (34 genes) by heterologous expression in yeast. The functional assay confirmed that the ∆11-desaturase interacts with palmitate and produces (Z)-11-hexadecenoate, which is the common unsaturated precursor of three homologous pheromone component acetates produced by subsequent chain-shortening, reduction and acetylation. Much lower, but still visible, activity on 14C and 12C saturated acids may account for minor pheromone compounds previously observed in the pheromone gland. The FAR characterized can operate on various unsaturated fatty acids that are the immediate acyl precursors of the different A. segetum pheromone components. None of the putative acetyltransferases that we expressed heterologously did acetylate any of the fatty alcohols tested as substrates. The massive sequencing technology generates enormous amounts of candidate genes potentially involved in pheromone biosynthesis but testing their function by heterologous expression or gene silencing is a bottleneck. We confirmed the function of a previously identified desaturase gene and a fatty-acyl reductase gene by heterologous expression, but the acetyltransferase postulated to be involved in pheromone biosynthesis remains illusive, in spite of 34 candidates being assayed. We also generated lists of gene candidates that may be useful for characterizing the acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase and β-oxidation enzymes.

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Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Japan 1 3%
Unknown 37 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 24%
Researcher 8 21%
Student > Master 5 13%
Student > Postgraduate 4 11%
Professor 2 5%
Other 5 13%
Unknown 5 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 19 50%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 11%
Medicine and Dentistry 3 8%
Chemistry 2 5%
Environmental Science 2 5%
Other 2 5%
Unknown 6 16%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 13. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 05 April 2023.
All research outputs
#2,476,318
of 23,545,680 outputs
Outputs from BMC Genomics
#769
of 10,788 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#34,980
of 274,371 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Genomics
#18
of 328 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,545,680 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 89th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,788 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 274,371 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 328 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.