昆虫葡萄糖氧化酶的基本特性及功能

葡萄糖氧化酶(glucose oxidases,GOX)是一种脱氢酶,普遍存在于动物、植物及微生物体内,可以专一性地将β-D-葡萄糖氧化成葡萄糖酸和过氧化氢。昆虫GOX可能是从葡萄糖-甲醇-胆碱氧化还原酶(glucose-methanol-choline oxidoreductases)经由葡萄糖脱氢酶(glucose dehydrogenase)进化而来。在昆虫中,GOX主要分布在下唇腺,杂食性昆虫比寡食性、单食性昆虫的GOX活性高。昆虫GOX除了能够调节自身与氧化还原相关的生理活动,在抑制寄主植物防御反应、促进昆虫取食寄主方面具有重要的功能,但同时也能诱发某些植物的防御反应。进一步深入研究GOX在昆虫与植物互作方面的功能,将有助于阐明两者间长期以来的协同进化关系,为农业害虫的防控提供理论依据和新思路。     

丛枝菌根真菌与植食性昆虫的相互作用

丛枝菌根(arbuscular mycorrhizal AM)真菌与昆虫均是陆地生态系统中的重要组分,同植物关系密切,对植物的影响和作用是巨大的。生态系统中则以AM真菌-植物-昆虫互作体系参预食物网与生态过程。早在20世纪80年代,人们已开始研究AM真菌对昆虫的影响。进入21世纪人们越来越重视AM真菌与昆虫的相互作用。总结了AM真菌对昆虫取食偏好、生长、繁殖和对植物危害等方面的影响、以及昆虫对AM真菌侵染、扩展和产孢的影响;分析了植物营养状况、昆虫性别、昆虫龄期和AM真菌种类等对AM真菌与昆虫相互作用的影响特点;探讨了AM真菌与昆虫相互作用的机制;展望了利用AM真菌抑制植食性害虫、及促进天敌昆虫和部分传粉昆虫作用的可能性,旨在丰富菌根学研究内容、促进AM真菌与昆虫互作领域的深入研究、为探索生物防控农林业害虫的新途径提供依据。     

植物-内生真菌共生体对昆虫种群的影响

植物内生真菌与植食性昆虫共用寄主植物作为食物、能量来源及栖息场所,三者之间的互作关系复杂多变,在生物种群控制、生物进化和植物生产中发挥重要作用.从植物-内生真菌共生体、内生真菌对植食性昆虫与多级营养层的影响,及内生真菌抗虫代谢产物等方面概括了内生真菌-植物-昆虫相互关系的研究进展,建议将植物内生真菌纳入植物生态学、昆虫生态学和作物病虫害控制的范畴内.     

几丁质酶的研究进展

几丁质是自然界中含量仅次于纤维素的第二大类多糖,已从各种细菌、真菌、植物、哺乳动物和昆虫中分离并鉴定出来。随着近年来对几丁质及其衍生物的了解,发现此类多糖的物理化学特性在现实中有非常广泛的应用。几丁质酶是一类分解几丁质的酶,广泛分布于细菌、真菌、植物、哺乳动物、昆虫等物种中,并发挥着重要作用。近年来国内外工作者对这些不同来源的几丁质酶做了深入研究,为其在医学和农业上更广泛的应用提供理论基础。     

培菌昆虫相关放线菌的次级代谢产物研究进展

昆虫共生微生物是一种特殊的微生物资源,其中放线菌在昆虫肠道、体表和巢穴中广泛分布。近年来,人们从培菌昆虫来源的放线菌中分离得到多种新型化合物,可以选择性抑制菌圃的致病真菌,部分还对植物致病真菌、昆虫致病真菌、人类病原菌和癌细胞有抑制活性。因此,研究培菌昆虫相关微生物不仅有助于了解宿主与微生物的共生机制,还能发掘新的活性物质,用于生物农药、生物医药的开发。本文对培菌昆虫来源放线菌次级代谢产物的研究进展进行了综述。     

昆虫海藻糖及其合成酶基因的特性与功能研究进展

海藻糖广泛存在于细菌、真菌、昆虫、无脊椎动物和植物等大量生物中。它不仅可以作为昆虫的能量来源,而且在抗逆等方面起着重要作用。海藻糖合成酶(Trehalose-6-phosphate synthase,TPS)是海藻糖合成过程中的一个关键酶。目前细菌、真菌和植物中都已经被发现和克隆,但其不存在于哺乳动物中。海藻糖是昆虫的"血糖",主要通过海藻糖合成酶和海藻糖-6-磷酸脂酶(Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase,TPP)在脂肪体中催化合成。TPS基因所编码的蛋白序列一般都包含两个保守的结构域:TPS和TPP,分别对应着酵母中的Ots A和Ots B基因。昆虫海藻糖合成酶的基因表达和酶活性的变化与昆虫的多项生理过程有着密切的关系,海藻糖合成酶有可能成为控制害虫的新靶标。     

兰科菌根的生态学研究进展

兰科植物(Orchidaceae)是典型的菌根植物,自然条件下其种子的成功萌发和生长的早期阶段对菌根真菌有绝对的依赖性,在有些成年兰科植物中菌根真菌仍起着重要的作用。目前大部分兰科植物已为濒危物种,鉴于兰科植物天然的菌根共生关系,开展兰科植物和菌根真菌互作的生态学研究不仅具有极高的科研价值,更有助于兰科植物的物种保护和野生种群的生态恢复。近年研究表明,兰科植物对真菌的选择和二者共生关系的建立与菌根真菌的空间分布和丰度密切相关,然而当前对自然环境中兰科菌根真菌的实际分布还了解甚少,因此文章从生态学角度系统分析兰科植物与菌根真菌的关系,探讨该领域的研究热点,旨在为兰科菌根的生态学研究提供参考。     

植物光毒素作用机理

光激发植物光毒素产生单线态氧或自由基,破坏核酸、脂质和蛋白质等,对病毒、细菌、真菌、线虫、昆虫和其他植物产生毒性,在植物的防护反应中具有重要作用．     

植物光毒素

介绍了植物光霉素的概念和结构，阐述了光霉素对病毒、细菌、真菌、线虫、昆虫和植物的作用。     

植物健康:农业生产面临的全球挑战

正在自然环境中,植物与微生物及昆虫等其它生物紧密互作。病毒、细菌、真菌等病原微生物以及昆虫危害造成植物病虫害,严重制约农业生产;有益微生物则与植物和谐共存,促进植物生长。例如,水稻作为世界上最重要的粮食作物之一,在其生产过程中可能会遭受各种真菌(如稻瘟菌、纹枯菌、稻曲病菌)、细菌(如白叶枯、细条病菌)、病毒(如条纹叶枯、黑条矮缩)及稻飞虱等昆虫的危害,这些均是造成产量损失的最直接因素。一旦发生病虫害,农民只得喷洒大量农药,而这严重威胁到生态和食品的安全。     

昆虫与植物的协同进化:寄主植物-铃夜蛾-寄生蜂相互作用

近数10年内,Ehrlich和Raven于1964年提出的协同进化理论及Jermy于1976年提出的顺序进化理论极大地促进了对昆虫与植物相互作用的研究。文章首先简要介绍有关理论,对植食性昆虫与植物关系研究的若干核心问题进行评述。主要问题包括(1)植食性昆虫如何选择寄主植物?(2)植物次生物质是否作为植物防御昆虫取食的重要屏障?(3)昆虫能否适应植物的化学防御?(4)植食性昆虫寄主范围是否是从广到专演化的?随之,作者结合对铃夜蛾Helicoverpa系统研究取得的结果,对上述问题做了进一步的论证和阐述。最后,在继承协同进化、顺序进化等理论精髓的基础上,根据当今三营养级相互作用领域的研究新进展,提出一个新的假说,即多营养级协同进化假说。该假说肯定植物次生物质在植物防御和昆虫识别寄主植物上的重要作用,同时把其他营养级并列放入交互作用的系统,特别强调第三营养级在昆虫与植物关系演化过程中的参与和寄主转移与昆虫食性专化和广化的联系。     

Insect-plant interactions on a planet of weeds

Two conflicting views confront ecologists and evolutionary biologists on the degree of symmetry in interactions between plants and phytophagous insects. The symmetrical view holds that insects and plants have strong effects on one another's evolutionary and ecological dynamics. Thus, herbivores are regarded as a major influence on plant distribution and abundance in contemporary ecosystems, and coevolution is commonly invoked to explain adaptive radiation in plants and insects, host specialization in insects, as well as much of the morphological and chemical variety observed in plants. The asymmetrical view acknowledges that plants have major effects on insects, but claims that insects seldom impose significant effects on plants. Proponents of the asymmetric view tend to ignore or discount insect-plant interactions in communities and ecosystems altered by human impacts. If we recognize the scope and scale of human impacts, and ways in which these impacts change insect-plant interactions, then our views about symmetry or asymmetry in insect-plant interactions will change. To understand, predict, and manage insect herbivory we need to study it in all its manifestations. In particular, the study of interactions involving alien species is both an urgent priority for environmental management and potentially a source of ecological insights on the role of herbivores in plant population and community dynamics. A complete theory of insect/host plant interactions must explain and predict interactions both within and beyond the native range. Such a theory might guide efforts to deal with environmental problems stemming from rapid rates of extinction and homogenization of the world's biota.     

水稻害虫化学生态调控研究进展

自然界中,在昆虫和植物种内与种间都存在着复杂的化学联系。开发利用生态系统中这些调控生物种内种间关系的生态功能分子,可望有效降低害虫的种群密度,从而减少化学农药的使用。本文根据目前国内外在利用生态功能分子调控水稻害虫方面的最新研究成果,分别就利用昆虫性信息素、水稻挥发物、非寄主植物提取物、化学激发子以及遗传改良水稻品种等在调控水稻害虫及其天敌中作用的研究进展进行了综述,并提出了今后的研究重点与方向。希望通过本文能促进化学生态调控技术在水稻害虫治理中的应用,以减轻水稻害虫治理对化学农药的依赖。     

Evidence that the caterpillar salivary enzyme glucose oxidase provides herbivore offense in solanaceous plants

The insect salivary enzyme glucose oxidase (GOX) can inhibit wound-inducible nicotine production in tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum. We examined whether salivary gland extracts of Helicoverpa zea lacking active GOX could still suppress nicotine in tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum, and whether GOX could suppress wound-inducible defenses of another Solanaceous plant, tomato Lycopersicon esculentum. Tobacco leaves were wounded with a cork borer and treated with water, salivary gland extracts with active GOX (SxG), or salivary gland extracts with inactive GOX (SxI). After three days, leaves treated with SxG had significantly less nicotine than all other wounded treatments. Neonates that fed on the terminal leaves of tobacco plants treated with SxG had significantly higher survival than neonates that fed on leaves treated with either SxI or water. This evidence supports the assertion that GOX is the salivary factor responsible for the suppression of tobacco plant nicotine production by H. zea saliva. Results for the NahG tobacco plants, which lack salicylic acid (SA) due to a transgene for bacterial SA hydroxylase, indicate that suppression of nicotine by GOX does not require SA. However, tobacco leaves that were wounded and treated with SxG had significantly higher levels of the SA-mediated PR-1a protein than leaves treated with SxI or water. Leaves of tomato plants wounded with scissors and then treated with SxG had trypsin inhibitor levels that were moderately lower than plants wounded and treated with purified GOX, water, or SxI. However, all the wounded tomato leaves irrespective of treatment resulted in lower caterpillar growth rates than the non-wounded tomato leaves. Glucose oxidase is the first insect salivary enzyme shown to suppress wound-inducible herbivore defenses of plants.     

Diversity begets diversity: host expansions and the diversification of plant-feeding insects

Background  

Plant-feeding insects make up a large part of earth's total biodiversity. While it has been shown that herbivory has repeatedly led to increased diversification rates in insects, there has been no compelling explanation for how plant-feeding has promoted speciation rates. There is a growing awareness that ecological factors can lead to rapid diversification and, as one of the most prominent features of most insect-plant interactions, specialization onto a diverse resource has often been assumed to be the main process behind this diversification. However, specialization is mainly a pruning process, and is not able to actually generate diversity by itself. Here we investigate the role of host colonizations in generating insect diversity, by testing if insect speciation rate is correlated with resource diversity.     

Plant-insect dialogs: complex interactions at the plant-insect interface

Although five different classes of insect herbivore-produced elicitors of plant volatiles have been identified, this is only a part of the complex, chemically mediated interactions between insect herbivores and their host plants. The defensive reactions of the plant, following physical injury by the herbivore, are influenced by a multitude of factors including, but not necessarily limited to, the elicitors and numerous other herbivore-associated molecules, as well as microbes on the plant surface that may alter plant defensive pathways. Ultimately, a thorough and accurate understanding of the chemical ecology of insect-plant interactions will require a more holistic approach, taking into consideration the ecological and physiological context in which a plant perceives and responds to herbivore-associated signals.     

Evolution of insect-plant relationships — a devil''s advocate approach

Most hypotheses concerning the evolution of insect-plant relationships are based on the assumptions that, (1) phytophagous insects reduce plant fitness, and that (2) insect-plant relationships are the result of unconstrained selection. It can be shown, however, that there is little evidence to support these assumptions. As an alternative, it is proposed that the evolution of insect-plant relationships results primarily from autonomous evolutionary events; namely from heritable functional changes within the insects' nervous system that determine plant recognition and ultimately host plant specificity. These changes cannot be evoked by selective ecological agents. They originate from intrinsic changes (mutationssensu lato) within the insect genome. Ecological factors play a secondary role: by either supporting or preventing the establishment of the new genotype with the novel food preference. This paper has been dedicated in warm friendship to Professor Louis M. Schoonhoven, the leading scientist in sensory physiology of phytophagous insects, on the occasion of his 60th birthday.     

A Penicillium expansum glucose oxidase-encoding gene, GOX2, is essential for gluconic acid production and acidification during colonization of deciduous fruit

Penicillium expansum, the causal agent of blue mold rot, causes severe postharvest maceration of fruit through secretion of total, d-gluconic acid (GLA). Two P. expansum glucose oxidase (GOX)-encoding genes, GOX1 and GOX2, were analyzed. GOX activity and GLA accumulation were strongly related to GOX2 expression, which increased with pH to a maximum at pH 7.0, whereas GOX1 was expressed at pH 4.0, where no GOX activity or extracellular GLA were detected. This differential expression was also observed at the leading edge of the decaying tissue, where GOX2 expression was dominant. The roles of the GOX genes in pathogenicity were further studied through i) development of P. expansum goxRNAi mutants exhibiting differential downregulation of GOX2, ii) heterologous expression of the P. expansum GOX2 gene in the nondeciduous fruit-pathogen P. chrysogenum, and iii) modulation of GLA production by FeSO(4) chelation. Interestingly, in P. expansum, pH and GLA production elicited opposite effects on germination and biomass accumulation: 26% of spores germinated at pH 7.0 when GOX activity and GLA were highest whereas, in P. chrysogenum at the same pH, when GLA did not accumulate, 72% of spores germinated. Moreover, heterologous expression of P. expansum GOX2 in P. chrysogenum resulted in enhanced GLA production and reduced germination, suggesting negative regulation of spore germination and GLA production. These results demonstrate that pH modulation, mediated by GLA accumulation, is an important factor in generating the initial signal or signals for fungal development leading to host-tissue colonization by P. expansum.