Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are an essential multifunctional protein family with common detoxifying enzymes. In this study, 34 GST genes were identified from the melon fly, Zeugodacus cucurbitae, one of the most destructive pests worldwide. These GSTs include 32 cytosolic genes and two microsomal genes. Furthermore, these cytosolic GSTs were classified into six classes: 11 delta, 13 epsilon, three theta, one sigma, two zeta, and two omega. Most of these showed dynamic expression during the developmental stage, some of which showed stage-specific expression. The expression in various adult tissues showed that most of them were expressed in anti-stress-related tissues. The transcriptional response of the delta and epsilon families was determined when Z. cucurbitae was exposed to three insecticides, abamectin, dinotefuran, and β-cypermethrin. Seven genes were significantly up-regulated by abamectin exposure. Moreover, five and four genes were significantly up-regulated with dinotefuran and β-cypermethrin exposure, respectively, demonstrating their involvement in the detoxification of these such toxic substances in Z. cucurbitae. One example of these genes, ZcGSTe4, was randomly selected to explore its function in response to β-cypermethrin exposure. Over-expressed ZcGSTe4 in E. coli showed significant tolerance to β-cypermethrin, and RNAi-mediated suppression of ZcGSTe4 also increased the sensitivity of melon fly to this agent. This study provides a foundation for further studies on the mechanism of detoxification metabolism in the melon fly.
Keywords: Glutathione S-transferase; Insecticide detoxification; Melon fly; Resistance; β-Cypermethrin.
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