Ehsan Borzoui , Ali Reza Bandani

Plant Protection Department, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Entomology, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/me.2013.04.0003
Received: 18 Feb., 2013    Accepted: 28 Feb., 2013    Published: 21 Mar., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

Borzoui and Bandani, 2013, Wheat and Triticale Proteinacious Seed Extracts Inhibit Gut α-amylase and Protease of the Carob Moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae, Molecular Entomology, Vol.4, No. 3 13-21 (doi: 10.5376/me.2013.04.0003)

 

The carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is a serious pest of stored products and fruit trees throughout the world. Various agricultural, mechanical, biological and chemical methods are used for the pest control but with little or no success. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of wheat and triticale seed proteinaceous extracts on the digestive enzymes of the Carob moth. So, the fourth instar larva were dissected, their gut were removed and their digestive enzymes, α-amylase and protease, were extracted using homogenization and centrifugation procedures. The effect of wheat and triticale seed extracts at concentrations of 0.10, 0.20, 0.4 0, 0.85, and 1.70 mg protein/ml were tested on the gut enzyme activities. Results showed that α-amylase and protease activity in the presence of wheat and triticale seed extracts showed a dose dependent inhibition. The effect of wheat seed extract is greater than the triticale seed extract on the both enzyme activity. The lowest concentration of wheat and triticale seed extracts (0.106 mg protein/mL) inhibited 39% and 18% of the amylase activity, respectively whereas the highest concentration of the two seed extracts including wheat and triticale inhibited 82% and 75% amylase activity, respectively. At the highest concentration, wheat and triticale seed extracts inhibited protease activity 61.5% and 56.8%, respectively. In gel assays confirmed the effect of the seed extracts on the both enzyme assays. These data shows that cereal seed extracts contain proteinaceous molecules that can interfere with digestive enzymes of the insect but with different specificity.s

Carob moth; Digestive enzymes; Inhibition; Wheat; Triticale