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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Insect Behavior and Biocontrol Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #293581

Title: Mixture-amount design and response surface modeling to assess the effects of flavonoids and phenolic acids on developmental performance of Anastrepha ludens

Author
item PASCACIO, CARLOS - Institute De Ecologia - Mexico
item Lapointe, Stephen
item WILLIAMS, TREVOR - Institute De Ecologia - Mexico
item Sivinski, John
item Niedz, Randall
item ALUJA, MARTIN - Institute De Ecologia - Mexico

Submitted to: Journal of Chemical Ecology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/2014
Publication Date: 3/12/2014
Citation: Pascacio, C., Lapointe, S.L., Williams, T., Sivinski, J.M., Niedz, R.P., Aluja, M. 2014. Mixture-amount design and response surface modeling to assess the effects of flavonoids and phenolic acids on developmental performance of Anastrepha ludens. Journal of Chemical Ecology. 40:297-306.

Interpretive Summary: Not all plants are edible to all herbivorous insects and the chemicals that make them inedible can be manipulated to create resistant varieties of crops including fruit.. Scientists at the USDA-ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology in collaboration with colleagues at the Instituto de Ecologia , Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, investigated the effects of chemicals found in various species of fruit on the development of Mexican fruit fly larvae. These compounds influenced larval weight and physical malformation, sometimes in a positive manner, but negatively in others. They were also prone to interact in ways that would be difficult to predict from the activitiy of single chemicals. This analysis, one of the first to use combined chemical exposures, will be used to further investigate host range and fruit-strain resistance in fruit flies.

Technical Abstract: A mixture-amount experimental design and response surface modeling were used to study the effects of three flavonoids and two phenolic acids, alone or in mixtures, in an artificial larval diet on the development and survival of Mexican fruit fly (Anastrepha ludens [Loew]). Pupal weight, percentage of pupation, adult emergence, and survival from neonate larvae to adults were not affected by phenolic compounds in the larval diet. The weight of seven day old larvae increased with (+)-catechin concentration, and in mixtures of phloridzin and rutin. In contrast, mixtures of chlorogenic acid with (+)-catechin or p-coumaric acid resulted in decreased larval weights. Larval developmental time was positively correlated with p-coumaric acid concentration, but this effect disappeared when phloridzin was present in the mixtures. Pupal developmental time increased with phloridzin concentration, but the opposite was observed in mixtures of phloridzin with rutin, (+)-catechin, or p-coumaric acid. Higher concentrations of chlorogenic acid mixed with (+)-catechin or rutin resulted in faster developmental time. Increasing concentrations of (+)-catechin were positively correlated with physical malformations in adults. The complex suite of positive and negative responses to these compounds alone or in mixtures may reflect an evolutionary history of specialization in managing the secondary compounds present in certain ripening fruits. Even highly polyphagous tephritids prefer host fruit from particular families and expansion of host range is likely to be modulated by the presence of individual phenolics in novel hosts and particularly their combinations.