Response of CDA5 in Hyphantria cunea to Bt toxin ingestion and Knockdown in transfected Sf9 cells

Abstract

AbstractChitin deacetylases (CDAs) are critical enzymes required for chitin degradation, which play an important role in modifying the physical properties of insect cuticles and peritrophic matrices. A novel chitin deacetylase gene (hccda5) was identified from Hyphantria cunea. The recombinant expressed HcCDA5 protein, containing a chitin deacetylase domain (CDAD), did not show chitin deacetylase activity, but instead showed a strong chitin‐binding activity. Transcriptional analysis using qRT‐PCR indicated that hccda5 was mainly expressed in the midgut of H. cunea larvae. Feeding H. cunea larvae with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Cry1A protein induced its downregulation. The gene of hccda5 was successfully silenced by different dsRNAs in insect cell line (Spodoptera frugiperda line, Sf9), which provided a tool to study the function of an expressed gene in insect cell line and laid a foundation for RNAi of hccda5 in H. cunea larvae.