Insect glutathione S-transferase: a review of comparative genomic studies and response to xenobiotics

Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) are a superfamily of multifunctional enzymes, widely distributed in living organisms. Recently, more and more insect genome sequences are available. Genomic characterizations and comparative analyses of insect GSTs have been performed. In addition, application of high-throughput technologies, such as microarray and next-generation sequencing technology, have accelerated the identification of inducible and resistant GSTs. In this review, we mainly discussed the progress in comparative genomic analysis of insect GSTs and identification of inducible and resistant GSTs using the high-throughput technologies.