A member of the Hsp60 gene family from the peach potato aphid, Myzus persicae (Sulzer.)

A novel cDNA clone encoding a mitochondrial Hsp60 was isolated from a Myzus persicae cDNA library. The nucleotide sequence consisted of 2348 bp and contained an open reading frame (ORF) of 1722 bases. The putative protein encoded by this ORF consisted of 574 amino acids and was designated MPHSP60. Comparison of MPHSP60 with other Hsp60s found that it was most similar to Hsp60 from Culicoides variipennis (85.6% similarity). Phylogenetic analysis revealed that MPHSP60 is clustered together with other insect Hsp60s. Comparisons were also made between MPHSP60 and SymL, the GroEL homologue of Myzus persicae endosymbionts.