title: Characterization of two closely related α-amylase paralogs in the bark beetle, Ips typographus (L.).
abstract: Ips typographus (L.), the eight-spined spruce bark beetle, causes severe damage throughout Eurasian spruce forests and suitable nuclear markers are needed in order to study its population structure on a genetic level. Two closely related genes encoding α-amylase in I. typographus were characterized and named AmyA and AmyB. Both α-amylase paralogs consisted of six exons and five introns. AmyA encodes a polypeptide of 483 amino acids, whereas AmyB has two alternative transcripts encoding polypeptides of 483 and 370 amino acids. The expression levels of both genes were high during larval stage and adulthood. The AmyB transcripts were absent in the pupal stage. A modification of the allozyme staining method allowed us to detect two clusters of bands on the electrophoretic gel that may correspond to the two α-amylase genes. There was a correlation between the lack of AmyB expression in pupa and the absence of the fast migrating isozyme cluster at this stage, suggesting that the faster migrating isoforms are products of the AmyB gene, whereas the slowly migrating bands are derived from the AmyA.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Entomology of the Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Ivana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Viktorinova
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kucerova
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bohmova
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jindra
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dolezal
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zurovcova
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zurovec
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004592:Electrophoresis, Starch Gel; D019476:Insect Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D007527:Isoenzymes / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D000516:alpha-Amylases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019476:Insect Proteins; D007527:Isoenzymes; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000516:alpha-Amylases