The tetraspanin superfamily in insects

We describe four members of the tetraspanin/TM4SF superfamily of proteins t hat were identified in expressed sequence tag projects on the antennae of M anduca sexta moths and Apis mellifera honey bees,The three moth genes are e xpressed in the sensillar epithelium of male antennae, and some are express ed in female antennae, haemocytes, wing scale cell primordia and/or embryon ic tissues. These proteins are probably involved in diverse cellular proces ses, much like their vertebrate homologues. A phylogenetic analysis of all known tetraspanins, including thirty-seven members of the superfamily revea led by the Drosophila melanogaster genome and twenty in the nematode Caenor habditis elegans genome, reveals some phylum-specific gene amplification, i n particular a contiguous array of eighteen genes in the D. melanogaster ge nome.