Tissue Distribution and Purification of Prophenoloxidase in Larvae of Asian Corn Borer, Ostrinia furnacalis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Cong-Jing FENG1,2
and Wen-Jun FU1*
( 1Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institute for Biological
Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200025, China; 2The Graduate
School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China )

Abstract Using ammonium sulphate
precipitation, Blue-Sepharose CL-6B, Phenyl-Sepharose CL-4B, prophenoloxidase
(PPO) was isolated and purified from hemolymph of Ostrinia furnacalis
larvae. This zymogen was a heterodimer, and composed of two subunits with the
relative molecular mass ranging from 66.2 kD to 97.4 kD determined by SDS-PAGE.
Western blotting and indirect immunofluorescence test showed that PPO was present
in integument, hemolymph plasma and cell membrane of granular hemocytes and
oenocytoids of O. furnacalis larvae.

Key words Ostrinia furnacalis;
prophenoloxidase; tissue distribution; purification

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Received: December 18, 2003 Accepted:
March 16, 2004
This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (No. 39930030)
*Corresponding author. Tel, 86-21-63366768; Fax, 86-21-63284924; E-mail, [email protected]