spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online August 14, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 2789-2794 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.030676
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Foster, S.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Foster, S.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Sugar feeding via trehalose haemolymph concentration affects sex pheromone production in mated Heliothis virescens moths

Stephen Foster

Entomology Department, North Dakota State University, PO Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108, USA

stephen.foster{at}ndsu.edu

Accepted 9 June 2009

Long-distance, female-produced sex pheromones are widespread among moths. Larval feeding provides most of the nutrients for development of these insects but is not thought to influence the de novo production of the fatty-acid derived compounds used as pheromones by most species. Feeding on plant nectar (sugar) by adult moths is important for increasing female fitness and also for the pollination of many plant species. In this paper, I show that feeding on sucrose solution, as opposed to water, increases sex pheromone titre in mated, but not virgin, female Heliothis virescens. Mating caused a rapid decrease in haemolymph trehalose concentration, which was restored to near-virgin levels by sugar ingestion. When isolated mated female abdomens were cultured with different concentrations of trehalose, pheromone titre increased with increasing trehalose concentration. This effect was not observed when abdomens were cultured on saline containing the sugar rhamnose, which insects cannot metabolise to glucose. Virgins injected with the juvenile hormone (JH) analogue, methoprene, showed the same effects as mated females with respect to pheromone titre and haemolymph trehalose concentration. Thus, following mating increases in JH titre increase demand for, and lowering of, blood sugar to develop oocytes, which can be compensated for by sugar ingestion. Haemolymph trehalose concentration probably influences glycolysis in gland cells and, consequently, levels of cytosolic citrate and acetyl-CoA for pheromone biosynthesis. This increase in pheromone titre in sugar-fed, mated females may facilitate further mating and increased fecundity. Thus, exogenous sugar feeding is behaviourally and physiologically integrated with endogenous JH titre to maximise female fitness.

Key words: juvenile hormone, methoprene, nectar feeding, pheromone biosynthesis


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?




© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2009