Zophobas morio (atratus)

  Class       : Insecta
  Order       : Coleoptera
  Suborder    : Polyphaga
  Infraorder  : Cucujiformia
  Superfamily : Tenebrionoidea
  Family      : Tenebrionidae

Zophobas morio is also known as Zophobas atratus

Common name : giant mealworm beetle, superworm, kingworm

Taxonomy ID 2755281

Annotation from assembly GCA_0367116695.1, WGS project JAVQLY01

374 sequences including 22 pseudogenes.

A FASTA format file of the CYPome can be downloaded soon.

The distribution of genes by CYP clan is tabulated here

Z. morio has the largest arthropod (and animal) CYPome annotated to date. The CYP306 gene, usually a single gene in Mandibulata, has been extensively duplicated to 57 divergent paralogs, including 12 pseudogenes.

Z. morio's ability to degrade plastics, including polyethylene and polystyrene is well known. Recently, two P450s were shown to participate in polyethylene oxidation (Son et al., 2026). The two P450s are CYP345C4 (CYP6k1-ZP10 in the paper) and CYP6BQ66 (CYP6a23-ZP15 in the paper). We thank Dr.Jin-Soo Son (Kyungpook National University, South Korea) for allowing naming the two P450 by the CYP nomenclature.