Translation Series No.1849

•
FISHERIES RESEARCH BOARD OF CANADA
Translation Series No. 1849
Moulting hormones in the oenocytes of the meal beetle
• y F. Romer
. Original title:
From:
:Rautungshormone in den Oenocyten des Mehlkafers
Die -NaturwiSsenschaften (The Natural Sciences), 58(6): .
1
324-335, 1971
Translated by . the Translation Bureau( MV)
Foreign Languages Division
.:Depa•ment of the Secretary of State of CanadaFisheries Research Board of Canada
Halifax Laboratory
Halifax, N. S.
1971.
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•
Moulting hormones in theoenocytes of the-meal beetle
.
in foreign laaguago :(transliterate fareign-eharaetera)
Hâutungsnormone in den Oenotyten des Mehlkafers .
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1971
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Die Maturwissehschaften, Volume 58, No.6, pp.324-325, 1971
Moulting hormones in the'-oenocvtes of the meal beetle
.324
By
•
•
F
.
ROMER
•
Institut • fUr . Allgemeine Zoologie der. Univer'
sitU Mainz * .
According to studïés in the field of developmental physiolOgy,
the mbulting hormones.of insects (ecdysones) are secreted by the
prothoracic glands [1,3]. Hitherto, the isolation and structural '
identification of these hormones he been carried out on the basis
of extracts from entire insects. Extraction tests with isolated
glands have confirmed this view r7] • It is also known, however, that
in some beetles and butterflies the prothoracic glands degenerate
shortly after pupation.
In spite of a very rapid degradation
system, the ecdysone content in advanced pupal stages is relatively
•
Institute - forrGeneral Zoology, Mainz Ilhiversity.-k
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2
high. This fact and the nmults of recent ligating experiments with
butterflies [9] suggest that there exists yet another production
site of moulting hormones. Electron microscopic studies r6,21 have
shown that this site might be the oenocytes. These latter, like
vertebrate steroid hormone-secreting cells, :ire characterized by
large amounts of agranular, tubular endoplasmic reticulum.
To test this hypothesis, large numbers of oenocytes must
be isolated and worked up. Only the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera
have the anatomical conditions renuired for such a procedure, and
Tenebrio molitor L. (Tenebrionidae, Coleoptera) 'was chosen for the
purpose.
The ecdysone titre is particularly high sl-iortly before
pupation and in the second half of the pupal phase, and as a result
it can be assumed that at those times the activity of the hormonesecreting cells has been intensified.
The oenocytes of 15 g prepupae were isolated and stored
in a deep-freeze compartment because the preparation of the insects
required more than one week. Concurrently, the prothoracic glands
and an equivalent amount of fat bodies were isolated and,af ter
working up, subjected to the Calliphora test r4]• So far, the
eXperiments have been-repeated four times, with 'a pupation rate
'between .10 and 45% per gram of starting material; 3 values lay
between 30 and 35%. The moulting hormone content. of the prothoracic
glands was lower, on the average slighty more than half that in
the oenocytes.
•
325
In the early pupal stages the 7,rothoracic glands degenerate
ri
However, tests the duration of which exceeded the pupal stadium
(5 days at 32 ° C) have shown that the ecdysone in the 4-day-old pupa
rises rapidly and amounts presumably to 7 CU/g * , The activity found
in ,11e) oenocytes was such that pupation took place in 40c.., or the
insects. This • corresponds to a concentration of 2/3 CU/g in the
oenocytes of 4-day-old pupae. if the dry substances of the extracted
tissues are related with each other, the ratio of oenocytes to
residual animals is approx. 1:40. The extracts from corresnording
amount s. of fat body yielded lower concentrations. If these value e .
are extrapolated. to - the total body•weight, one finds that in the
pupal oènocytes the hormone content increases by a factor of 4,
while.in, the prepupa it rises by a factor of at least 10 since
the tote ecdySone content is lower.
•
In addition to and concurrent with the extraction experiments,
homogenates of isolated prepupal oenocytes were injected into
(1) Tenebrio larvae which were undergoing an interval between
tle10
successive moults and had not started the next moulting, and (2)
Translator's note: The original German albreviation "CE" stands
for "C....Einheit", leich translates as "C
Unit"; however, it
could not - be established which unit was actually referred to.
4
partially pupated Calliphora specimens that had been prepared for
the hormone test. In the first case a :ilielt reduction in the
duration of the larval stadtum in comparison to controls was observed,
in the second case a pupation rate of 20
series, and of- more than 30',
per Tenebrio larva in one
in the other series.
Insects do not synthesize the steroid skeleton themselves,
but depend on cholesterol or related substances. In order to prove
that the oenocytes participate in steroid metabolism, the insects
were injected with tritium -labelled cholesterol (specific activity
5,000 mCi/mmole). The autoradiov,rams (otal preparations and
section preparations) showed extensive incorporation of cholesterol.
The histochemical detection for c} - olesterol and its esters was
also positive in the oenocytes.
Compared with the extraction tests on residual bodies, the
extraction tests with a positive Calliphora test showed a relatively
high content of moulting hormone in the oenocytes. The microstructure,
- the incorporation of radioactively labelled cholesterol, and the
results of cell homoenate injections show clearly that in the larva
the moulting hormone • is produced by the oenocytes in collaboration
with the prothoracic glands, in the pupa presumably by the oenocytes
alone.
This. study was carried out with the support. of the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft
(German Research ASsociation).
(ïieceived on January 28 and February 9, 1971)
.
References .
[1] BlIckmann, D.: Zool. Ant. Suppl. 33, 215 (1969). -(2] Gnatsy, W.: Z. Zeliforsch. 110, 4 0 1 (197 0). — [3] Herman,
W. S.: Intern. Rev. Cytol. 22, 269 (1967). — [4] Karlson, P., 1
Sbaaea, E.: J. Insect Pbysiol. 10, 797 (1964). — [5] Karlson, P.Bede, C.: ibid. 13, HI (1969). — [6] Locke, M.: ,
llama. band Cell I, 103 (1969). — [7] Romer, F.: In Vorbereltun..
[8) Srivastava, U. S.: • Experientia 16, 445 (1960).
[9] Welt S. E.: Nature 221, 580 (1970).
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