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Journal of Experimental Biology 75,123-132 (1978)
Published by Company of Biologists 1978

Effects of the Non-protein Amino Acids L-Canavanine and L-Canaline on the Nervous System of the Moth Manduca Sexta (L.)

ANN E. KAMMER ¹, D. L. DAHLMAN ², and GERALD A. ROSENTHAL ³

¹ Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506
² Department of Entomology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506
³ T. H. Morgan School of Biological Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506

Injection of L-canavanine, a naturally occurring arginine analogue, and of its metabolic derivative, L-canaline, induced almost continuous motor activity in adult tobacco hornworms, Manduca sexta (L.). Initially the moths flew normally, but after a time interval that depended both on the amino acid and on the dose (1–l45/µmol/g fresh weight) the moths became disorientated and muscle activity was less patterned. Canaline produced its initial effects 12–30 min after injection, whereas activity in response to canavanine began after a delay of 1–2 h. Canaline (derived from canavanine by an arginase-mediated hydrolytic cleavage) is probably the biologically active factor.

Canaline did not affect axonal conduction of action potentials nor the activity of mechanoreceptors on the forewing. Canaline (22µmol/g fresh weight) prolonged the postsynaptic potential of flight muscle fibres, but after 20–40 min. the electrical activity of muscle fibres was normal. The results show that canaline alters the activity of the central nervous system of adult M. sexta, but its mode of action is unknown.