甲壳素,N-乙酰葡糖胺链的天然聚合物,是节肢动物顶端细胞外基质的主要成分。几丁质微纤维作为天然生物复合材料的结构成分存在于各种无脊椎动物的细胞外基质,包括海绵,软体动物,线虫,真菌和节肢动物。在这次审查中,综述了昆虫几丁质合成的前沿研究进展。更具体地说,我们关注几丁质合成酶(CHS),催化关键的生物合成步骤。CHS也被称为有吸引力的杀虫靶标,因为这种酶在哺乳动物中不存在,鸟或植物。由于到目前为止还没有昆虫几丁质合成酶结构的报道,我们回顾了来自真菌和卵菌的糖基转移酶结构域结构的最新研究,在CHS中,所有含有几丁质的物种都是保守的。辅助蛋白,在几丁质生物合成和组装中与CHS协调,也讨论了。
Chitin, a natural polymer of N-acetylglucosamine chains, is a principal component of the apical extracellular matrix in arthropods. Chitin microfibrils serve as structural components of natural biocomposites present in the extracellular matrix of a variety of invertebrates including sponges, molluscs, nematodes, fungi and arthropods. In this review, we summarize the frontier advances of insect chitin synthesis. More specifically, we focus on the chitin synthase (CHS), which catalyzes the key biosynthesis step. CHS is also known as an attractive insecticidal target in that this enzyme is absent in mammals, birds or plants. As no insect chitin synthase structure have been reported so far, we review recent studies on glycosyltransferase domain structures derived from fungi and oomycetes, which are conserved in CHS from all species containing chitin. Auxiliary proteins, which coordinate with CHS in chitin biosynthesis and assembly, are also discussed.