Peptidases from Spilostethus pandurus
Insect adaptation to diverse ecological niches influences their dietary habits and consequently their profile of their digestive enzymes. Peptidases, for instance, are essential for insect nutrition by degrading proteins into smaller and easily absorbable peptides. As pests that feed on various seeds and plants, Hemiptera insects are promising sources of proteolytic enzymes with suitable applications in food and pharmaceutical industries. However, peptidases from the milkweed bug Spilostethus pandurus (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) have not been studied so far. In the present study, we identified peptidases from S. pandurus via mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics and a homologous comparison to proteins from a taxonomically related organism, the bug Oncopeltus fasciatus. The recombinant expression of the peptidases was proposed to enable applications in large-scale and their characterization can provide valuable information about the S. pandurus metabolism and phylogenic traits.