Abstract
Absence of biotin in a chemically defined medium for Neoaplectana glaseri delayed the appearance of newborn larvae in species isolation cultures of this insect-parasitizing nematode. Purines and pyrimidines were not required nutrients. Azaserine, 7.2 X 10-5 M to 1.44 X 10-3 M, inhibited the nematode's development in a liver extract medium, demonstrating that N. glaseri has a capability for the de novo biosynthesis of purines. Two enzymes involved in folate metabolism, serine hydroxymethyltransferase and 10-formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase, occur in N. glaseri. Information about the nutrition of nematodes, important for the comparative physiology of taxa as well as for practical purposes such as control of parasitic species or estimation of biochemical changes caused in a host organism, is accumulating gradually as more suitable culture methods and defined media are being devised. For insect-parasitizing Neoaplectana glaseri it has already been shown that folates are needed in reproduction (Jackson and Siddiqui, 1965) and that the amino acid requirement resembles that of mammals (Jackson, 1973). Cultures with deficient media or with antimetabolites supplied the evidence. From such data alone, however, one cannot deduce the details of metabolic pathways nor conclusively determine their absence. This paper presents enzymatic evidence for the metabolism of folate by N. glaseri, deficient medium evidence for the extent of the biotin requirement, as well as deficient medium and antimetabolite evidence about the nematode's
Published Version
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