Research of nitrogen metabolism controlling system in insects

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Fatty acid amino acid conjugates (FACs) in lepidopteran caterpillars enhance their nitrogen assimilation and are considered to accelerate their growth ratio. The research focused on the biosynthetic mechanism of FACs in lepidopteran caterpillars.For the first time, in vitro biosynthesis of glutamate conjugates were observed when the substrates were incubated with a midgut tissue of Spodoptera litura, silkworm, tobacco hornworm and a few other species. That means glutamate is directly conjugated with fatty acid in lepidopteran caterpillars, suggesting the synthetic routeis the same with the case of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster but clearly different from the case of crickets Gryllus emma. Crickets first conjugate glutamine with fatty acid and modify the side chain of glutamine moiety to make a glutamate conjugate. Although FACs in these insects share a common ground such as localization in themidgut tissues and the same analog pattern consisting of glutamine/glutamate, the finding suggest that at least glutamate type FACs were independently developed in these insect order.