昆虫金属硫蛋白的研究进展

Research Progress of Insect Metallothionein

金属硫蛋白(metallothioneins,MT)具有清除自由基、调节生物体内微量元素浓度、参与重金属的解毒等作用。介绍了MT生物学特性、表达调控生理功能,并对已发表的昆虫MT氨基酸序列进行生物信息学分析。通过分析发现昆虫MT结构保守,序列较短,同一物种不同MT之间同源性低,分类系统不够完善。讨论了昆虫MT研究的难点和不足,并展望了昆虫MT解毒的应用前景。

Metallothioneins(MT)play roles in scavenging free radicals,regulating the concentration of trace elements in organisms,and participating in the detoxification of heavy metals.This article introduced the biological characteristics,expression regulations and physiological functions of MT,and conducted bioinformatic analysis of the published amino acid sequence of insect MT.It was found that insect MT structure was conservative,but the sequence was short,the homology between different MTs of the same species was low,and the classification system was not perfect.The article also discussed the difficulties and shortcomings of insect MT researches,and looked forward to the application prospects of insect MT detoxification.