Discovery of the insect-type sialic acid and its metabolic pathway

这项研究的目的是证明一种假说，即昆虫不含有脊椎动物中常见的常见唾液酸(SIA)，而是昆虫特有的“昆虫型SIA”。以黑腹果蝇和赤粉甲虫为研究对象，对其进行了分离纯化，并对其结构、发生和代谢途径进行了分析。我们可以鉴定出在这项研究中测试的所有昆虫中都存在的昆虫型SIA。在代谢方面，并不是所有的昆虫都含有常见的SIA代谢酶，即使在这些被证明含有代谢酶的昆虫中，这些酶似乎也失去了活性。然而，看看昆虫酶能否在不久的将来利用昆虫类型的SIA将是一个紧迫的课题。综上所述，我们的假设得到了成功的验证，即昆虫含有昆虫型SIA，而不是普通SIA。

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the hypothesis that insects do not contain usual sialic acids (Sia) that are commonly found in vertebrates, but “insect-type Sia”, which is unique to insects. Using Drosophilla melanogaster (fluit fly), Tribolium castaneum (red flour beetle), several moth species, purification and analyses of structure, occurrence, and metabolic pathways of the insect -type Sia were performed. We could identify the insect-type Sia that was present in all the insects tested in this study. For metabolic aspects, all insects do not contain metabolic enzymes known for the common Sia, and even in such insects that were shown to contain the metabolic enzymes, the enzymes seemed to lose their activities. It would be an urgent subject, however, to see if the insect enzymes can utilize the insect-type Sia in near future. Taken together, our hypothesis that insects contain the insect-type Sia, but not the common Sia has been successfully verified.