Cloning and Expression Pattern of the Carboxylesterase Gene GmCarE4a in Galleria mellonella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) under Chemical Stress

Abstract

To investigate the response characteristics of the carboxylesterase gene GmCarE4a in Galleria mellonella to insecticide stress, we used a previously generated transcriptome dataset of G. mellonella from our research group. The complete coding sequence (CDS) of the GmCarE4a in G. mellonella was cloned by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by bioinformatics analysis and phylogenetic tree construction. Additionally, reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was used to analyse the expression patterns of this gene across different developmental stages, tissue locations, and under varying concentrations of chlorantraniliprole stress. The results showed that the CDS region of GmCarE4a from G. mellonella spans 1743 bp (CNCB: OMIX013348), encoding 581 amino acids. The CDS possesses the typical conserved domains of carboxylesterases, belongs to the β family, and exhibits the closest phylogenetic relationship to GmCarE4a of Achroia grisella. GmCarE4a exhibits differential spatial and temporal expression in G. mellonella, with the highest expression levels observed in late-instar larvae and epidermal tissues. Under chlorantraniliprole stress, its expression levels in the treated groups were significantly higher than in the control group. These findings suggest that GmCarE4a may play a key role in the detoxification and metabolism of G. mellonella.