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Journal of Experimental Biology 61,557-570 (1974)
Published by Company of Biologists 1974

Nitrogen Metabolism in the American Cockroach: An Examination of Whole Body and Fat Body Regulation of Cations in Response to Nitrogen Balance

DONALD E. MULLINS ¹ and DONALD G. COCHRAN ²

¹ Department of Zoology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A-3K7, Canada and Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Va. 24061 U.S.A.
² Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Blacksburg, Va. 24061 U.S.A.

The effects of nitrogen balance on uric acid/urate, K+ and Na+ storage or mobilization were examined in the American cockroach Periplaneta americana (L.). Cockroaches on a high nitrogen diet increased in whole body uric acid/urates, K+ and Na+. Those on a semi-starvation diet maintained fairly constant levels of uric acid/urates, K+ and Na+. However, those on a low nitrogen diet mobilized stored uric acid/urates and K+, but not Na+. Analyses for uric/urates K+, Na+, Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ in fat body tissue from insects maintained on 12 diets containing different concentrations and sources of dietary nitrogen showed that only K+ concentration could be correlated with fat body uric acid/urate storage. Whole body storage and mobilization of uric acid/urates, K+ and Na+ were reflected in the faecal/dietary ratios of K+ and Na+. A model for a uric acid/urate ion sink which might be associated with ionic and osmotic balances is proposed, and some evidence for its existence is discussed.