title: A comprehensive characterization of the caspase gene family in insects from the order Lepidoptera.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The cell suicide pathway of apoptosis is a necessary event in the life of multicellular organisms. It is involved in many biological processes ranging from development to the immune response. Evolutionarily conserved proteases, called caspases, play a central role in regulating apoptosis. Reception of death stimuli triggers the activation of initiator caspases, which in turn activate the effector caspases. In Lepidoptera, apoptosis is crucial in processes such as metamorphosis or defending against baculovirus infection. The discovery of p35, a baculovirus protein inhibiting caspase activity, has led to the characterization of the first lepidopteran caspase, Sf-Caspase-1. Studies on Sf-Caspase-1 mode of activation suggested that apoptosis in Lepidoptera requires a cascade of caspase activation, as demonstrated in many other species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In order to get insights into this gene family in Lepidoptera, we performed an extensive survey of lepidopteran-derived EST datasets. We identified 66 sequences distributed among 27 species encoding putative caspases. Phylogenetic analyses showed that Lepidoptera possess at least 5 caspases, for which we propose a unified nomenclature. According to homology to their Drosophila counterparts and their primary structure, we determined that Lep-Caspase-1, -2 and -3 are putative effector caspases, whereas Lep-Caspase-5 and -6 are putative initiators. The likely function of Lep-Caspase-4 remains unclear. Lep-Caspase-2 is absent from the silkworm genome and appears to be noctuid-specific, and to have arisen from a tandem duplication of the Caspase-1 gene. In the tobacco hawkmoth, 3 distinct transcripts encoding putative Caspase-4 were identified, suggesting at least 2 duplication events in this species.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The basic repertoire of five major types of caspases shared among Lepidoptera seems to be smaller than for most other groups studied to date, but gene duplication still plays a role in lineage-specific increases in diversity, just as in Diptera and mammals.
authors: Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany.
authors: Juliette
authors: J
authors: Courtiade
authors: Yannick
authors: Y
authors: Pauchet
authors: Heiko
authors: H
authors: Vogel
authors: David G
authors: DG
authors: Heckel
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D020170:Caspase 1 / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D053178:Caspase 6 / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D020169:Caspases / Q000032:analysis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D004330:Drosophila / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D053148:Caspase 3; D053178:Caspase 6; D020169:Caspases; D020170:Caspase 1