Fig. 1

DUT gene from Western corn rootworm. a Pyrimidine metabolism map adapted from KEGG map00240 [7]. Enzymes supplying dUMP that are identified in WCR and Methanococci are indicated in orange and green, respectively. b Alignment of the dUTPase protein sequences among D. v. virgifera, T. castaneum, D. melanogaster, H. sapiens, S. cerevisiae, and E. coli (see Materials and Methods for the accession numbers). The construct sequence used in this study is shown at the top, where the positions including the removable N-terminal 6-His tag and the thrombin cleavage sites are underlined. The five conserved motifs in dUTPase are highlighted in cyan (M1–M5; see also Additional file 1: Fig. S1a). Substituted amino acids within the conserved motifs are not highlighted. Nuclear localization signals reported in D. melanogaster [25] and H. sapiens [15] are highlighted in gray. dUTPase from D. melanogaster possesses a Drosophila-specific 28-residue segment at the C-terminal [25]. The location of Lys114 in D. v. virgifera and corresponding residues in other species are highlighted in green. c Model for one of the active sites (Additional file 1: Fig. S1b). A substrate and side chains of relevant amino acid were shown in stick model