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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Gainesville, Florida » Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology » Chemistry Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #94697
Title: PRODUCTION OF INSECT JUVENILE HORMONE III IN SUSPENSION CELL CULTURES OF THE SEDGE, CYPERUS IRIA L.

Author
item BEDE, J. - UNIV. TORONTO
item Teal, Peter
item TOBE, S. - UNIV. TORONTO

Submitted to: Plant Cell Reports
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: One defensive strategy of plants against insect herbivory is the production of insect hormone mimics because interfering with the insect endocrine system makes it difficult for the insect to evolve counter adaptive strategies. Juvenile hormones regulate critical physiological processes like metamorphosis and reproduction in insects. However, there has been only one report of the identification of insect juvenile hormone from a plant. Scientists at the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada and CMAVE, USDA, ARS, Gainesville FL have developed a cell culture of the plant C. iria and have successfully isolated and identified juvenile hormone from extracts of the cell tissue culture medium. These cultures provide an excellent model to study the biosynthetic pathway of JH III in the plant and may lead to development of novel ways to induce agriculturally important plants to synthesize juvenile hormone for protection against insect damage.

Technical Abstract: Callus cultures from the plant C. iria were established from aseptically-grown seedlings on Murashige and Skoog (MS), Gambourg (B5) and Shenk and Hildebrand (SH) media. From these cultures, cell suspension cultures have been maintained on MS and SH media for over four years. This is the first report of callus and cell suspension cultures derived from C. iria. Two biosynthetic intermediates of JH III in the insect, farnesol and MF, and JH III were identified in pentane extracts from suspension culture cells by gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Therefore, these suspension cultures provide an excellent in vitro model to study the biosynthetic pathway of JH III in the sedge, C. iria.