title: Conservation of silk genes in Trichoptera and Lepidoptera.
abstract: Larvae of the sister orders Trichoptera and Lepidoptera are characterized by silk secretion from a pair of labial glands. In both orders the silk filament consists of heavy (H)- and light (L)-chain fibroins and in Lepidoptera it also includes a P25 glycoprotein. The L-fibroin and H-fibroin genes of Rhyacophila obliterata and Hydropsyche angustipennis caddisflies have exon/intron structuring (seven exons in L-fibroin and two in H-fibroin) similar to that in their counterparts in Lepidoptera. Fibroin cDNAs are also known in Limnephilus decipiens, representing the third caddisfly suborder. Amino acid sequences of deduced L-fibroin proteins and of the terminal H-fibroin regions are about 50% identical among the three caddisfly species but their similarity to lepidopteran fibroins is <25%. Positions of some residues are conserved, including cysteines that were shown to link the L-fibroin and H-fibroin by a disulfide bridge in Lepidoptera. The long internal part of H-fibroins is composed of short motifs arranged in species-specific repeats. They are extremely uniform in R. obliterata. Motifs (SX)(n), GGX, and GPGXX occur in both Trichoptera and Lepidoptera. The trichopteran H-fibroins further contain charged amphiphilic motifs but lack the strings of alanines or alanine-glycine dipeptides that are typical lepidopteran motifs. On the other hand, sequences composed of a motif similar to ERIVAPTVITR surrounded by the (SX)(4-6) strings and modifications of the GRRGWGRRG motif occur in Trichoptera and not in Lepidoptera.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8634, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yonemura
authors.forename: Kazuei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mita
authors.forename: Toshiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Frantisek
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sehnal
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs / Q000235:genetics; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics*; D005349:Fibroins / Q000235:genetics*; D017344:Genes, Insect; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D007313:Insecta / Q000235:genetics; D007814:Larva / Q000737:chemistry; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D047011:Silk / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D047011:Silk; D005349:Fibroins