Comparative transcriptomics of mountain pine beetle pheromone-biosynthetic tissues and functional analysis of CYP6DE3

The mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) is a highly destructive pest of pine forests in western North America. During flight to a new host tree and initiation of feeding, mountain pine beetles release aggregation pheromones. The biosynthetic pathways of these pheromones are sex-specific and localized in the midgut and fat body, but the enzymes involved have not all been identified or characterized. We used a comparative...