Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Chemistry Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #259178
Title: Total body nitrogen and total body carbon as indicators of body protein and body lipids in the melon fly: Effects of methoprene, a juvenile hormone analogue, and of diet supplementation with hydrolyzed yeast

Author
item HAQ, IHSAN - National Agricultural Research Center - Pakistan
item MAYR, LEOPOLD - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
item Teal, Peter
item HENDRICHS, JORGE - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
item ROBINSON, ALAN - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
item STAUFFER, CHRISTIAN - Forest Research Center - Austria
item HOOD-NOWOTNY, REBECCA - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Submitted to: Journal of Insect Physiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/21/2010
Publication Date: 10/27/2010
Citation: Haq, I.U., Mayr, L., Teal, P.E., Hendrichs, J., Robinson, A.S., Stauffer, C., Hood-Nowotny, R. 2010. Total body nitrogen and total body carbon as indicators of body protein and body lipids in the melon fly: Effects of methoprene, a juvenile hormone analogue, and of diet supplementation with hydrolyzed yeast. Journal of Insect Physiology. 56:1807-1815.

Interpretive Summary: Methoprene in combination with a diet containing protein is known to enhance mating success by male melon flies. Scientists at the IAEA/FAO laboratories, Seibersdorf Austria, Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology, USDA-ARS, Gainesville Florida, FAO/IAEA Vienna Austria and University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria investigated the effects of these treatments on turnover of body lipids and protein by measuring changes in total body carbon and total body nitrogen. Their results showed that treatment with methoprene had no effect on total body nitrogen or carbon. However, the results showed that deprevation of protein from adult diets resulted in adults relying solely on nitrogen reserves acquired as larvae. Thus flies fed a protein rich diet as adults are nutritionally more fit than those fed only sugar.

Technical Abstract: The application of methoprene and dietary protein enhanced mating success and had no effect on survival in male melon fly Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae). .The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of methoprene and protein on body lipids and protein turn-over to determine the possibility of its application in SIT. The study was conducted in the laboratory, treatments imposed on adult flies were females with protein diet and males with either: 1) both protein and methoprene (M+P+); 2) only protein (M-P+) 3) only methoprene (M+P-) and; 4) untreated males (M-P-).Total body carbon (TBC) and total body nitrogen (TBN) of flies from emergence to 35 days after emergence was measured at regular intervals. Nitrogen assimilation and turnover in the flies was measured using isotope dilution techniques. Protein diet significantly increased the male body weight, TBC and TBN as compared to sugar fed males. Females had significantly higher body weight, TBC and TBN as compared to males. TBC and TBN fluctuated with age, increasing until the age of sexual maturity and decreasing afterwards in both sexes. Methoprene has no adverse effect on the flies except a slight decline in TBC and TBN in M+P- males compared with M-P- after onset of sexual maturity. Using isotope dilution techniques it was demonstrated that sugar fed males rely solely on larval N reserves and that protein fed males’ N uptake rate was higher shortly after emergence and then stabilized. It was also demonstrated that that the isotope dilution technique for measuring was an effective method for determining N uptake . The results are discussed in the light of lipogenic ability in this species and have implications for SIT.