Juvenile Hormone Analogues, Methoprene and Fenoxycarb Dose-Dependently Enhance Certain Enzyme Activities in the Silkworm Bombyx Mori (L)

Devi M Mamatha

doi:10.3390/ijerph2008050016

Abstract

Use of Juvenile Hormone Analogues (JHA) in sericulture practices has been shown to boost good cocoon yield; their effect has been determined to be dose-dependent. We studied the impact of low doses of JHA compounds such as methoprene and fenoxycarb on selected key enzymatic activities of the silkworm Bombyx mori. Methoprene and fenoxycarb at doses of 1.0 μg and 3.0fg/larvae/48 hours showed enhancement of the 5th instar B. mori larval muscle and silkgland protease, aspartate aminotransaminase (AAT) and alanine aminotransaminase (ALAT), adenosine triphosphate synthase (ATPase) and cytochrome-c-oxidase (CCO) activity levels, indicating an upsurge in the overall oxidative metabolism of the B.mori larval tissues.

Highlights

Juvenile hormone analogues (JHA) are known to prolong the larval life in insects, and these have been long utilized for the improvement of silk production in the silkworm Bombyx mori (L)
The data related to the effect of methoprene and fenoxycarb on B. mori muscle and silk gland aspartate aminotransaminase (AAT) and alanine aminotransaminase (ALAT) activities were presented in tables 1 and 2, where both the agents at the doses employed significantly increased both the enzymatic activities in the muscle and silk gland over their corresponding experimental control groups of tissues
Silk production basically depends on the B. mori larval protein metabolism which in turn needs more energy generating events, spinning requires more muscular activity and silk is being produced by the silkgland

Summary

Introduction

Juvenile hormone analogues (JHA) are known to prolong the larval life in insects, and these have been long utilized for the improvement of silk production in the silkworm Bombyx mori (L). In the last two to three decades, a number of newer JHA compounds have been investigated; and many investigators have tried to study the effect JHA compounds have on various hybrids of silkworms to elucidate the contribution of varied JHA formulations in increasing the yield. Many of these experiments attempt to explain the mode of action of individual formulations [3,4,5,6,7]. In view of the biological significance of JHA compounds’ on the yield of silk material this study was undertaken in an attempt to study the effect of selected JHA compounds, methoprene and fenoxycarb on certain key enzyme activity profiles in tissues of the silkworm B. mori

Methods

Results

Conclusion