Tryptophane Synthesis in Insects

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In order to determine whether insects can utilize indole or anthranilic acid as precursors of tryptophan, as can Neurospora, individual pupae of normal (+ chromogen producing) or of white-1 type (kynurenin producing) silkworm larvae were injd. with 0.05 ml. of one of the following solns.: 0.5% anthranilic acid, 0.5% anthranilic acid plus 0.*5% L-serine, 0.5% indole, 0.5% indole plus 0.5% L-serine, 0.5% tryptophan, or water (controls). A total of 120 larvae were used, equal nos. of males and females being included. After 96 hrs. the pupae were ground and extracted with either 10% trichloracetic acid or 80% ethanol, and the concn. of kynurenin and + chromogen in the ex-tracts was detd. by the Otani-Honda method and Ehrlich diazo re-action method, respectively. Since tryptophan is transformed into + chromogen in normal and into kynurenin in the white-1 type, if the injd. substances serve as precursors of tryptophan, there should be an increase in the concn. of the kynurenin or + chromo-gen respectively compared to controls. Results were negative except in the case of injd. tryptophan. Therefore, it would appear that neither anthranilic acid nor indole serve as precursors of tryptophan in the silkworm pupae.

This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit: