Trypsin activity associated with reproductive development in the cockroach, Nauphoeta cinerea (Blattaria)

Abstract

The trypsin activity of female Nauphoeta cinerea cockroaches was related to ovarian development under varying circumstances. Because of the specificity of trypsin for the synthetic substrate, TAME ( p-toluenesulfonyl- l-arginine methyl ester), the trypsin assay employed TAME, its first reported use with insect material. Mated females on a normal diet were used as controls. Starved, protein-fed and carbohydrate-fed unmated females showed a general decrease in trypsin activity as opposed to an increase in trypsin in both mated and unmated females on a normal diet. In mated females the trypsin activity decreased after ovulation, while in the unmated females on the same diet there was a continued rise in trypsin activity even after ovulation. These data are in general agreement with the findings of others regarding the interaction of brain median neurosecretory cells and corpora allata secretions and their control of digestive protease, haemolymph protein concentration, and ovarian yolk deposition.