Evaluation of Stable Isotope 13C6-glucose on Volatile Organic Compounds in Different Stages of Mediterranean Fruit Fly (Medfly) Ceratitis Capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae)

Hasan Al Khshemawee,Manjree Agarwal,Yonglin Ren

doi:10.4172/2161-0983.1000195

Abstract

The Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) Ceratitis Capitata (Diptera: Tephidae), as most of the Tephritidae species, is a pest of great economic importance around the world. For Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and biological pest management purposes, this research will investigate characterization of the broadest possible range of volatile organic compounds and the possible changing trends of volatile biological emissions during development stages of insect. During the last years, many types of research have been done to understand chemical communications between pest-pest interactions and about the insect responses to specific volatile organic compounds. An early comparison of the VOCs emitted from larvae, pupae and adult was performed. Our research focuses on the comparison of volatile compounds emitted from a different stage of Medfly using stable isotope 13C6-glucose. Gas Chromatography (GC) technique coupled with Flame Ionization Detection (FID) and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for identification of VOCs was employed. Head Space-Solid Phase Micro Extraction HSSPME method with Three-phase fiber 50/30 µm divinylbenzene/carboxen/ polydimethylsiloxane (DVB/CAR/PDMS) was used. The results showed that there are different chemicals emitted in a different stage of Medfly (Larvae, pupae, and adults M/F) especially in the adult stage. GC-MS detected 27 compounds from larvae, 23 compounds from pupae and 29 compounds from adults. These different VOCs emitted in different stages of Medfly were clearly displayed, and a broad range of emitted volatile compounds was successfully described. The characterization of release patterns could be useful tool for the selection of compounds and for further investigated in biological studies to understand of the key semi-chemicals involved in medfly behaviour.

Highlights

Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Medfly) is an invasive agriculture pest species that impact fruit production and export worldwide
The main goal of this research was to provide the qualitative description of volatile profiles at different stages of Medfly and characterize of compounds according to their emission pattern by using stable isotope 13C6-glucose
The cultures were incubated for 2-5 days at 23 ± 1°C and 75% ± 5 Relative Humidity (RH) for rearing the larvae stage while for pupae stage, they kept in 26 ± 2°C and 65 ± 5% Relative Humidity (RH)

Summary

Introduction

Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Medfly) is an invasive agriculture pest species that impact fruit production and export worldwide. Fruit fly management is almost exclusively carried out with chemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment [4]. The problem is more dangerous, since the law regarding organic farming prevents the use of synthetic materials that include pesticides [5]. For this reason, farmers are trying to limit these issues by avoiding infection by Mediterranean fruit fly. The potential detection method is to analyse the Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) released by different stages of medfly (Larvae, pupae and adults) and understanding the insect response to stable isotope.

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Conclusion