Fatty Acid-amino Acid Conjugates Diversification in Lepidopteran Caterpillars |
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Authors: | Naoko Yoshinaga Hans T Alborn Tomoaki Nakanishi David M Suckling Ritsuo Nishida James H Tumlinson Naoki Mori |
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Affiliation: | (1) Center for Chemical Ecology, Department of Entomology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA;(2) Center of Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, Agricultural Research Service, Chemistry Unit, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1600 Southwest 23rd Drive, Gainesville, FL 32611-0620, USA;(3) Forestry and Fisheries Technology Center, Fruit Tree Research Institute, Tokushima Prefectural Agriculture, Katsuura-cho, Katsuura, Tokushima 773-4301, Japan;(4) The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited, PB 4704, Christchurch, New Zealand;(5) Division of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan; |
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Abstract: | Fatty acid amino acid conjugates (FACs) have been found in noctuid as well as sphingid caterpillar oral secretions; in particular,
volicitin N-(17-hydroxylinolenoyl)-L-glutamine] and its biochemical precursor, N-linolenoyl-L-glutamine, are known elicitors of induced volatile emissions in corn plants. These induced volatiles, in turn,
attract natural enemies of the caterpillars. In a previous study, we showed that N-linolenoyl-L-glutamine in larval Spodoptera litura plays an important role in nitrogen assimilation which might be an explanation for caterpillars synthesizing FACs despite
an increased risk of attracting natural enemies. However, the presence of FACs in lepidopteran species outside these families
of agricultural interest is not well known. We conducted FAC screening of 29 lepidopteran species, and found them in 19 of
these species. Thus, FACs are commonly synthesized through a broad range of lepidopteran caterpillars. Since all FAC-containing
species had N-linolenoyl-L-glutamine and/or N-linoleoyl-L-glutamine in common, and the evolutionarily earliest species among them had only these two FACs, these glutamine
conjugates might be the evolutionarily older FACs. Furthermore, some species had glutamic acid conjugates, and some had hydroxylated
FACs. Comparing the diversity of FACs with lepidopteran phylogeny indicates that glutamic acid conjugates can be synthesized
by relatively primitive species, while hydroxylation of fatty acids is limited mostly to larger and more developed macrolepidopteran
species. |
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