Expression and characterization of two pesticide resistance-associated serine protease genes (NYD-tr and NYD-ch) from Culex pipiens pallens for metabolism of deltamethrin.

Two deltamethrin resistance-associated serine protease genes (NYD-tr and NYD-ch) were isolated from Culex pipiens pallens in our previous study. To study the function of NYD-Tr and NYD-Ch in the metabolism of deltamethrin, we constructed the recombinant plasmid pET32a(+)/NYD-tr and pET32a(+)/NYD-ch with a 6x histidine tag. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and Western blot analyses of the recombinant proteins revealed that the molecular weights of NYD-Tr and NYD-Ch are 42 and 50 kDa. Enzyme activity assay indicated that the recombinant NYD-Tr and NYD-Ch had the corresponding features of trypsin and chymotrypsin. Using BApNA as the substrate, NYD-Tr gave optimal activity between pH 9.0 and 10.5, while NYD-Ch was optimally active over the range of pH 8.0-11.0 using the S(Ala)(2)ProPhe-pNA as the substrate. Then, we investigated the metabolism of deltamethrin by NYD-Tr and NYD-Ch. Our results showed that NYD-Tr and NYD-Ch could hydrolyze deltamethrin. The acute oral toxicity of the metabolite to Wistar rats was much lower than deltamethrin.