Insect Hydrocarbons: Biochemistry and Chemical Ecology
Cuticular hydrocarbons of insects often consist of complex mixtures of straight chain, unsaturated and methyl-branched components with 21 to 40+ carbons. They function to restrict water loss, to prevent a lethal rate of desiccation and serve in chemical c
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Insect Hydrocarbons: Biochemistry and Chemical Ecology Matthew D. Ginzel and Gary J. Blomquist
Abstract Cuticular hydrocarbons of insects often consist of complex mixtures of straight chain, unsaturated and methyl-branched components with 21 to 40+ carbons. They function to restrict water loss, to prevent a lethal rate of desiccation and serve in chemical communication in many species. This chapter describes the chemistry and chemical ecology of insect hydrocarbons with an emphasis on their role as close range or contact pheromones. Hydrocarbons are formed in oenocytes and their biosynthetic pathways are described. Recent work has begun to take advantage of the tools of molecular biology to better understand hydrocarbon formation and this information is summarized. The various methods by which insects utilize hydrocarbons as inter- and intraspecific chemical signals are also described.
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Introduction
Hydrocarbons on the surface of insects are essential to prevent desiccation and death of insects and have evolved to play a number of roles in chemical communication where relatively non-volatile components are used (Howard and Blomquist 2005; Bagnères and Lorenzi 2010; Blomquist and Bagnères 2010; Ginzel 2010; Greene 2010; Liebig 2010; van Zweden and d’Ettorre 2010). They are comprised of long-chain, non-isoprenoid components of 21 to 40+ carbons. Due to their small size, insects have large surface area to volume ratios and are therefore susceptible to rapid water loss. The ability of insects to withstand desiccation was recognized in the 1930s to be due in part to the epicuticular wax layer on the cuticle. The presence M.D. Ginzel Departments of Entomology and Forestry & Natural Resources, Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA e-mail: [email protected] G.J. Blomquist (*) Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Nevada, 1664 North Virginia Street, Reno, NV 89557-0300, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 E. Cohen, B. Moussian (eds.), Extracellular Composite Matrices in Arthropods, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40740-1_7
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of hydrocarbons in this wax layer was suggested by Chibnall et al. (1934) and Blount et al. (1937), and over the next few decades the importance of hydrocarbons in the cuticular wax of insects was established (Baker et al. 1963). The development and application of combined gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry was key to the rapid and efficient analyses of insect hydrocarbons. In the late 1960s and during the next few decades, GC-MS analyses of insect hydrocarbons were established (Nelson and Sukkestad 1970), and since that time hydrocarbons of thousands of insect species were analyzed, first on packed columns, and then much more efficiently on capillary columns. It became recognized that for many insect species, very complex mixtures of normal (straight-chain), methyl-branched and unsaturated components exist (Howard and Blo
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