Insect Cytochrome P450 Database: an integrated resource of genetic
diversity, evolution and function
Abstract
Insects, the most numerous and diverse group of animal species on Earth,
have important interactions with humans through providing resources,
transmitting diseases, and damaging agricultural cultivars. Cytochrome
P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are one of the most important protein
families in insects implicated in the endogenous metabolism and
detoxification of xenobiotics, including allelochemicals, insecticides,
and environmental pollutants. To better understand the evolution and
function of insect P450s and support the development and application of
insecticides for pest control, an integrated bioinformatics platform is
highly desirable. Here, we present the Insect Cytochrome P450 database
(ICPD, http://www.insectp450.net/), which contains 66,513 P450s
collected from public databases and predicted from the genomes of 680
insect species using a standardized bioinformatics protocol.
Phylogenetic relationships between P450 genes are constructed for each
species. The structures of all P450 proteins in the database are
predicted using AlphaFold v2 and/or ESMFold, then visualized using
WeView. Web services, such as BLAST, homogeneous modeling, and molecular
docking, are provided for determining the catalytic activities of P450
proteins. The ICPD will facilitate systematic investigations of the
evolution and functions of the complete insect P450 complement, and
represents a powerful tool for guiding insecticide design and
application.