Insect cytochrome P450-monooxygenases (P450s) are an enzyme superfamily involved in the oxidative transformation of endogenous and exogenous substrates, including insecticides. They were also shown to determine insecticide selectivity in beneficial arthropods such as bee pollinators, and to detoxify plant secondary metabolites. The recent explosion in numbers of P450s due to increased invertebrate genomes sequenced, allowed researchers to study their functional relevance for xenobiotic metabolism by recombinant expression using different expression systems. Troubleshooting strategies, including different systems and protein modifications typically adapted from mammalian P450s, have been applied to improve the functional expression, with partial success. The aim of this mini review is to critically summarize different strategies recently developed and used to produce recombinant insect P450 for xenobiotic metabolism studies.

昆虫细胞色素 P450 单加氧酶 (P450) 是一种酶超家族，参与内源性和外源性底物（包括杀虫剂）的氧化转化。它们还被证明可以确定有益节肢动物（如蜜蜂传粉者）的杀虫剂选择性，以及对植物次生代谢物进行解毒。由于无脊椎动物基因组测序的增加，最近 P450 的数量激增，使研究人员能够通过使用不同表达系统的重组表达来研究它们与异生物质代谢的功能相关性。故障排除策略，包括通常改编自哺乳动物 P450 的不同系统和蛋白质修饰，已被应用于改善功能表达，并取得了部分成功。