Role of the brain in juvenile hormone synthesis and oöcyte development: Effects of dietary protein in the cockroach Blattella germanica (L.)

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coby Schal ◽  
Ann-Shyn Chiang ◽  
Edina L. Burns ◽  
Michal Gadot ◽  
Richard A. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Juvenile Hormone ◽  
Dietary Protein ◽  
Blattella Germanica ◽  
Oocyte Development ◽  
Hormone Synthesis ◽  
Cockroach Blattella Germanica ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals The cockroach Blattella germanica obtains nitrogen from uric acid through a metabolic pathway shared with its bacterial endosymbiont

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 20140407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Patiño-Navarrete ◽  
Maria-Dolors Piulachs ◽  
Xavier Belles ◽  
Andrés Moya ◽  
Amparo Latorre ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Uric Acid ◽  
Dietary Protein ◽  
Fat Body ◽  
Blattella Germanica ◽  
Symbiotic Association ◽  
Nitrogen Recycling ◽  
Recycling Process ◽  
Protein Levels ◽  
Genes Encoding ◽  
Cockroach Blattella Germanica

Uric acid stored in the fat body of cockroaches is a nitrogen reservoir mobilized in times of scarcity. The discovery of urease in Blattabacterium cuenoti , the primary endosymbiont of cockroaches, suggests that the endosymbiont may participate in cockroach nitrogen economy. However, bacterial urease may only be one piece in the entire nitrogen recycling process from insect uric acid. Thus, in addition to the uricolytic pathway to urea, there must be glutamine synthetase assimilating the released ammonia by the urease reaction to enable the stored nitrogen to be metabolically usable. None of the Blattabacterium genomes sequenced to date possess genes encoding for those enzymes. To test the host's contribution to the process, we have sequenced and analysed Blattella germanica transcriptomes from the fat body. We identified transcripts corresponding to all genes necessary for the synthesis of uric acid and its catabolism to urea, as well as for the synthesis of glutamine, asparagine, proline and glycine, i.e. the amino acids required by the endosymbiont. We also explored the changes in gene expression with different dietary protein levels. It appears that the ability to use uric acid as a nitrogen reservoir emerged in cockroaches after its age-old symbiotic association with bacteria.

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