Premium
Glycine Conjugates in a Lepidopteran Insect Herbivore—The Metabolism of Benzylglucosinolate in the Cabbage White Butterfly, Pieris rapae
Author(s) -
Vergara Fredd,
Svatoš Aleš,
Schneider Bernd,
Reichelt Michael,
Gershenzon Jonathan,
Wittstock Ute
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
chembiochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1439-7633
pISSN - 1439-4227
DOI - 10.1002/cbic.200600280
Subject(s) - pieris rapae , biology , glycine , insect , glucosinolate , herbivore , myrosinase , botany , pieridae , plant defense against herbivory , butterfly , brassicaceae , biochemistry , larva , amino acid , ecology , gene , brassica
Herbivores have developed a wide array of countermeasures to overcome plants' chemical defences. Larvae of the cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae , feed exclusively on plants of the Brassicales order, which are defended by the glucosinolate–myrosinase system. The defensive function of this system comes from toxic isothiocyanates that are formed when glucosinolates are hydrolysed by myrosinases upon tissue damage. Here we show that P. rapae larvae convert benzylglucosinolate to phenylacetylglycine, which is released in their faeces. Feeding experiments with isotopic tracers suggest that phenylacetonitrile and phenylacetic acid are intermediates in this conversion. We also identified additional glycine and isoserine (2‐hydroxy‐3‐aminopropanoic acid) conjugates with benzoate and indole‐3‐carboxylate from P. rapae faeces extracts. This is the first description of such conjugates from lepidopteran insects.