scholarly journals Proline as a Sparker Metabolite of Oxidative Metabolism during the Flight of the Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens

Metabolites ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 511
Author(s):  
Nadia Stec ◽  
Ammar Saleem ◽  
Charles-A. Darveau

Several insect species use the amino acid proline as a major energy substrate. Although initially thought to be limited to blood-feeding dipterans, studies have revealed this capability is more widespread. Recent work with isolated flight muscle showed that the bumblebee Bombus impatiens can oxidize proline at a high rate. However, its role as a metabolic fuel to power flight is unclear. To elucidate the extent to which proline is oxidized to power flight and how its contribution changes during flight, we profiled 14 metabolites central to energy and proline metabolism at key time points in flight muscle and abdominal tissues. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-ESI-QTOF MS) analysis revealed that proline is likely used as a sparker metabolite of the tricarboxylic acid cycle at the onset of flight, whereby it supplements the intermediates of the cycle. Carbohydrates are the major energy substrates, which is evidenced by marked decreases in abdominal glycogen stores and a lack of alanine accumulation to replenish flight muscle proline. The time course of fuel stores and metabolites changes during flight highlights homeostatic regulation of energy substrates and patterns of changes in metabolic intermediates within pathways. This study clarifies the role of proline and carbohydrate metabolism during flight in hymenopterans, such as B. impatiens.

Author(s):  
Tamara Lang ◽  
Markus Himmelsbach ◽  
Franz Mlynek ◽  
Wolfgang Buchberger ◽  
Christian W. Klampfl

AbstractIn the present study, the uptake and metabolization of the sartan drug telmisartan by a series of plants was investigated. Thereby for seven potential metabolites, modifications on the telmisartan molecule such as hydroxylation and/or glycosylation could be tentatively identified. For two additional signals detected at accurate masses m/z 777.3107 and m/z 793.3096, no suggestions for molecular formulas could be made. Further investigations employing garden cress (Lepidium sativum) as a model plant were conducted. This was done in order to develop an analytical method allowing the detection of these substances also under environmentally relevant conditions. For this reason, the knowledge achieved from treatment of the plants with rather high concentrations of the parent drug (10 mg L−1) was compared with results obtained when using solutions containing telmisartan in the μg - ng L−1 range. Thereby the parent drug and up to three tentative drug-related metabolites could still be detected. Finally cress was cultivated in water taken from a local waste water treatment plant effluent containing 90 ng L−1 of telmisartan and harvested and the cress roots were extracted. In this extract, next to the parent drug one major metabolite, namely telmisartan-glucose could be identified.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Monika Bielecka ◽  
Bartosz Pencakowski ◽  
Marta Stafiniak ◽  
Klemens Jakubowski ◽  
Mehdi Rahimmalek ◽  
...  

Subgenus Perovskia of the extended genus of Salvia comprises several Central Asian medicinal and aromatic species, of which S. yangii and S. abrotanoides are the most widespread. These plants are cultivated in Europe as robust ornamentals, and several cultivars are available. However, their medicinal potential remains underutilized because of limited information about their phytochemical and genetic diversity. Thus, we combined an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF-MS) based metabolomics with DNA barcoding approach based on trnH-psbA and ITS2 barcodes to clarify the relationships between these two taxa. Metabolomic analysis demonstrated that aerial parts are more similar than roots and none of the major compounds stand out as distinct. Sugiol in S. yangii leaves and carnosic acid quinone in S. abrotanoides were mostly responsible for their chemical differentiation, whereas in roots the distinction was supported by the presence of five norditerpenoids in S. yangii and two flavonoids and one norditerpenoid in S. abrotanoides. To verify the metabolomics-based differentiation, we performed DNA authentication that revealed S. yangii and S. abrotanoides to be very closely related but separate species. We demonstrated that DNA barcoding coupled with parallel LC-MS profiling constitutes a powerful tool in identification of taxonomically close Salvia species.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1640
Author(s):  
Cecilia Jiménez-Sánchez ◽  
Fabián Pedregosa ◽  
Isabel Borrás-Linares ◽  
Jesús Lozano-Sánchez ◽  
Antonio Segura-Carretero

In this study, we determined the phytochemical profile of the Spanish “triguero” asparagus landrace “verde-morado” (Asparagus officinalis L.), a wild traditional landrace, and the improved “triguero” HT-801, together with two commercial green asparagus varieties. For comparison, we used reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with diode array electrospray time-of-flight mass spectrometry (RP-HPLC-DAD-ESI-TOF/MS) followed by a permutation test applied using a resampling methodology valid under a relaxed set of assumptions, such as i.i.d. errors (not necessarily normal) that are exchangeable under the null hypothesis. As a result, we postulate that “triguero” varieties (the improved HT-801 followed by its parent “verde-morado”) have a significantly different phytochemical profile from that of the other two commercial hybrid green varieties. In particular, we found compounds specific to the “triguero” varieties, such as feruloylhexosylhexose isomers, or isorhamnetin-3-O-glucoside, which was found only in the “triguero” variety HT-801. Although studies relating the phytochemical content of “triguero” asparagus varieties to its health-promoting effects are required, this characteristic phytochemical profile can be used for differentiating and revalorizating these asparagus cultivars.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (26) ◽  
pp. 17270-17277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yubin Niu ◽  
Maowen Xu ◽  
Chunlong Dai ◽  
Bolei Shen ◽  
Chang Ming Li

Na6.24Fe4.88(P2O7)4 is one of the intensively investigated polyanionic compounds and has shown high rate discharge capacity, but its relatively low electronic conductivity hampers the high performance of the batteries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Scholz ◽  
Manuel Serif ◽  
David Schleheck ◽  
Martin D.J. Sayer ◽  
Alasdair M. Cook ◽  
...  

Abstract This study aimed to survey algal model organisms, covering phylogenetically representative and ecologically relevant taxa. Reports about the occurrence of sulfonates (particularly sulfoquinovose, taurine, and isethionate) in marine algae are scarce, and their likely relevance in global biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem functioning is poorly known. Using both field-collected seaweeds from NW Scotland and cultured strains, a combination of enzyme assays, high-performance liquid chromatography and matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to detect key sulfonates in algal extracts. This was complemented by bioinformatics, mining the publicly available genome sequences of algal models. The results confirm the widespread presence of sulfonates and their biosynthetic pathways in macro- and microalgae. However, it is also clear that catabolic pathways, if present, must be different from those documented from the bacterial systems since no complete cluster of gene homologues of key genes could be detected in algal genomes.


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