Search

Three diverse insects, a polyphagous "leaf chewer" (Atractomorpha lata), a polyphagous "sap feeder" (Myzus persicae), and a "restrictive feeder" (Plutella xylostella) responded differently when fed with eight cultivars of sesame either as whole leaf or via artificial diet. There was limited or no correlation in induction between detoxifying enzyme substrates (esterase, glutathione s-transferase [GST], and mixed function oxidase [MFO] activities) when activity toward various substrates α-naphthyl acetate, 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene, 1,2-dichloro-4-nitrobenzene, and p-nitroanisole (pNA), were compared although they were generally elevated in the tissues from insects on sesame than a reference fed with radish seedlings. In A. lata, esterase activity for the cultivar 11Pusan and 45Laos were three-fold higher compared to the reference, while other cultivars, 24Nanbu-twasaki and 56S-radiatum were--two- to three-fold lower than the reference. In M. persicae, the esterase activity was as much as five-fold higher than the reference in one test cultivar. GST activities of the sesame cultivars were generally higher (≈two-fold) than the reference in all insects and at variable ratios among the cultivars. The MFO activity toward pNA in grasshoppers feeding on these sesame cultivars was either highly expressed or nonexistent. These results indicate that although the cultivars belong to the same species, they might have undergone changes in secondary phytochemicals in response to varying biogeographical distribution. Each insect species is suspected to target a specific plant chemical burden that it tries to overcome in each cultivar through enzyme activation., (© 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The principal biochemical mechanisms of resistance to insecticides involve either modified, less sensitive cholinesterase, esterase action, glutathione S-transferase action or cytochrome P-450-dependent monooxygenation. Both quantitative and qualitative differences in cytochrome P-450 isozymes are under genetic control and both are related to resistance. Recent characterization studies involving ligand binding and multiplicity of isozymes in Musca domestica (the housefly) are discussed in relation to resistance. The recent demonstration that multiple isozymes of glutathione S-transferase exist in susceptible and resistant insects is of interest, and some re-examination of their role in the mechanism of resistance is required. Esterases are a heterogeneous group of enzymes whose role in resistance has often been suggested but seldom rigorously defined. Purification studies in the green rice leafhopper, Nephotettix cincticeps, have involved an enzyme with carboxylesterase, phosphotriesterase and pyrethroid esterase activities. A similar enzyme, but without pyrethroid esterase activity, is also found in the housefly. In resistance such enzymes may serve either to catalyse hydrolysis or as binding proteins. It has been suggested, from time to time, that regulator genes, enzyme induction and gene magnification all play a part in controlling biochemical mechanisms of resistance, although clearly defined evidence has not always been brought forward. These hypotheses are re-examined.