Biochemistry

Fatty acids are not only part of storage lipids, which after immobilization participate in energy homeostasis, but are also involved in the regulation of various processes and chemical communication. Different insect species use for many life-important activities such as mating, finding the way to food sources, pheromones, which are highly species-specific. Different enzymes such as desaturases, oxidoreductases, esterases, lipases might participate in pheromone biosynthesis. To identify and characterize enzymes involved in biosynthesis of fatty acids in different insect species, the cDNA libraries will be prepared from RNA isolated from different tissues. The corresponding genes will be constructed and activities of enzymes will be detected either using the functional expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae or by isolation of enzymes and their characterization.