Genome mining reveals a novel nephthenol‐producing diterpene synthase from the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis

Ducker, Charles, McKeown, Catherine, Da Silva, Igor F. P., Souza, Isis Torres, Pickett, John A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1008-6595, Santana, Antônio E. G. and Oldham, Neil J. 2025. Genome mining reveals a novel nephthenol‐producing diterpene synthase from the sandfly Lutzomyia longipalpis. ChemBioChem , 2500292. 10.1002/cbic.202500292

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Abstract

Populations of the sandfly, Lutzomyia longipalpis, use the diterpene sobralene as a sex/aggregation pheromone, which is likely produced in the insect through the activity of a recently discovered noncanonical terpene synthase (TPS). This study shows that the genome of this insect also contains another noncanonical TPS able to produce principally (S)‐(+)‐nephthenol (isoserratol) from geranylgeranyl diphosphate. This diterpene alcohol does not appear to be produced by the sandfly, nor is the corresponding TPS gene transcribed, hence these findings suggest that insects may be a promising source of TPSs for apparently cryptic terpenoid products.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Chemistry
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1439-4227
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	14 July 2025
Date of Acceptance:	25 June 2025
Last Modified:	14 Jul 2025 15:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/179812

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