Identification and expression analysis of NADH-cytochrome b₅ reductase gene in the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.

NADH-cytochrome b5 reductase (CBR) is one of the most important components of cytochrome P450s, which play an essential role in the detoxification of xenobiotics as well as insecticide resistance in insect pest. In the present study, two novel full-length cDNAs of CBR of the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera (Hübner) were amplified by means of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques. The sequencing results showed that the transcripts were 1809bp and 1518bp for HaCBR1 and HaCBR2, respectively, including 969bp and 939bp of complete open reading frame (ORF), which encoded 322 and 312 amino acids respectively. The putative structure and function of HaCBR1 and HaCBR2 were preliminarily analyzed by SMART program.