Insect trehalase: Physiological significance and potential applications

Abstract

Trehalose, a non-reducing disaccharide, is widespread throughout the biological world. It is the major blood sugar in insects playing a crucial role as an instant source of energy and in dealing with abiotic stresses. The hydrolysis of trehalose is under the enzymatic control of trehalase. The enzyme trehalase is gaining interest in insect physiology as it regulates energy metabolism and glucose generation via trehalose catabolism. The two forms of insect trehalase namely, Tre-1 and Tre-2, are important in energy supply, growth, metamorphosis, stress recovery, chitin synthesis and insect flight. Insect trehalase has not been reviewed in depth and the information available is quite scattered. The present mini review discusses our recent understanding of the regulation, mechanism and biochemical characterization of insect trehalase with respect to its physiological role in vital life functions. We also highlight the molecular and biochemical properties of insect trehalase that makes it amenable to competitive inhibition by most glycosidase inhibitors. Due to its crucial role in carbon metabolism in insects, application of inhibitors against trehalose can form a promising area towards formulating strategies for insect pest control.

Trehalose inhibits solute carrier 2A (SLC2A) proteins to induce autophagy and prevent hepatic steatosis

“…One particular disaccharide, trehalose, is a glucose-glucose disaccharide linked by an α,α, 1,1-glycoside bond. Trehalose is ubiquitous to a wide variety of organisms, including bacteria, yeast, fungi, insects, and invertebrates, but trehalose is absent in vertebrate animals (8). .…”

Oxygen and energy availability interact to determine flight performance in the Glanville fritillary butterfly

“…However, previous experiments on blow flies have demonstrated that the availability of trehalose -the disaccharide of glucose in insects -is a limiting factor for the duration of flight performance (Clegg and Evans, 1961). Trehalose is the primary blood sugar in insects and it plays a major role in insect flight, acting as the source of instant energy as well as mitigating abiotic stressors (Shukla et al, 2015). Synthesized by the fat body, trehalose is hydrolysed by the trehalase enzyme, releasing glucose into the flight muscle (Becker et al, 1996).…”

Functional characterization of three trehalase genes regulating the chitin metabolism pathway in rice brown planthopper using RNA interference

“…TRE1 and TRE2 are known to regulate wing development, light metabolism, and chitin biosynthesis1320. The chitin biosynthesis pathway involves eight enzymes, namely TRE, hexokinase (HK), glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (G6PI), fructose-6-phosphate transaminase (GFAT), glucosamine-phosphate N-acetyltransferase (GNPNA), phosphoacetylglucosamine mutase (PGM), UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP), and chitin synthase (CHS), and is crucially important for insect life2627282930.…”