title: Isolation and molecular characterization of cathepsin L-like cysteine protease cDNAs from western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis).
abstract: Cysteine proteases are predominant in thrips guts (TGs) and, therefore, a suitable target for selecting effective protease inhibitors against western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis). We report the isolation of four full-length cysteine protease cDNA clones from thrips in a two-step PCR approach with degenerate oligonucleotides designed on conserved cathepsin L domains. At the deduced amino acid level, the clones possessed all functional and structural characteristics of cathepsin L, and showed high mutual identity and strong similarity with cathepsin L-like cysteine proteases from other insects and arthropods. Southern analysis indicated that a family of four closely related and 10-12 less-related genes encode the cathepsin L-like cysteine proteases in the thrips genome. Partial sequencing of genomic DNA demonstrated the presence of three introns in the coding DNA.
authors.affiliation: Plant Research International B.V., P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. anja.kuipers@wur.nl
authors.forename: Anja G J
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Kuipers
authors.forename: Maarten A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Jongsma
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D056668:Cathepsin L; D002403:Cathepsins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000235:genetics; D015723:Gene Library; D023281:Genomics; D007313:Insecta / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D002403:Cathepsins; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; D056668:Cathepsin L