METHODS: Cytochrome P450 of Ae. aegypti was amplified using polymerase chain reaction, cloned and sequenced. Evolutionary relationship of the sequence was inferred and bioinformatics tools were used to predict subcellular localisation, signal peptide, transmembrane helix, phosphorylation, O-glycosylation, secondary and tertiary structures of the deduced protein.

RESULTS: Polymerase chain reaction rather amplified a cytochrome P450 pseudogene which was named CYP4H44P (GenBank accession number KF779932). The pseudogene has 1537 nucleotides and an open reading frame of 335 amino acids containing cytochrome P450 motifs except the WxxxR motif. It is highly homologous to CYP4H28 and CYP4H28v2. Phylogenetic analysis and evolutionary divergence showed strong clustering with CYP4H28 alleles and least divergence from the alleles respectively. The deduced protein was predicted to be found in the cytoplasm and likely to be phosphorylated but devoid of signal peptide, transmembrane helix and O-glycosylated sites. The secondary and tertiary structures were also generated.