Abstract
Two genes encoding different acetylcholinesterases (AChE) were successfully cloned from 2 species of aphid, Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) and Sitobion avenae (F.). They were named Rp.AChE1 (GenBank accession No. AY707318), Rp.AChE2 (AY667435), Sa.AChE1 (AY707319), and Sa.AChE2 (AY819704), and were 2133, 2363, 2131, and 2362 bp in length and encoded 664, 676, 664, and 676 amino acids, respectively. All of them shared the characteristics of the AChE family: catalytic tiads, 3 intra-chain disulfide bridges, an acyl pocket, and the conservative aromatic residues for the active site of the gorge. Sequence analysis revealed that Rp.AChE1 and Sa.AChE1 showed higher identity to the reported orthologous genes of Drosophila AChE, and Rp.AChE2 and Sa.AChE2 to paralogous genes. However, in each of the aphids, the 2 genes from the same species shared only 29% identity between one another. It was therefore concluded that each of the aphids has 2 different AChE genes, which are either orthologous or paralogous to Drosophila AChE. The high conservation of AChE1 and AChE2 indicated that 2 acetylcholinesterases exist popularly and that both might function in aphids.
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