Insect Biochem Mol Biol 2022 May 5;144:103762. Epub 2022 Apr 5.
Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA. Electronic address:
Phenoloxidase (PO) is a crucial component of the insect immune response against microbial infection. In the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta, PO is generated from its precursor proPO by prophenoloxidase activating proteases (PAPs) in the presence of two noncatalytic serine protease homologs (SPHs). cDNA cloning and genome analysis indicate that SPH1a (formerly known as SPH1), SPH1b, SPH4, SPH101, and SPH2 contain a clip domain, a linker, and a protease-like domain (PLD). Read More