Chlorophyll Catabolites in Senescent Leaves of Lima Bean (Phaseolus Lunatus) and in the Frass of Spodoptera Littoralis After Defecation

DOI

10.2991/ahcps.k.211004.010How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Primary fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites, Lima bean, Spodoptera littoralis, Late chlorophyll catabolites, Opening macrocyclic tetrapyrroles

Abstract

Chlorophylls (Chls), the green pigments responsible for photosynthesis in plants, algae and bacteria, are also part of the daily diet of herbivorous feeders. Chl degradation occurs during leaf senescence and fruit ripening but is also noticed as a response to biotic and abiotic stresses. Besides the programmed degradation during senescence different factors such as high temperature, extreme pH values, enzymatic actions, molecular oxygen, and light initiate the degradation of Chl. To gain more information on Chl degradation in the gut of plant-feeding insects, regurgitate and frass of Spodoptera littoralis caterpillars were analysed for late Chl catabolites by using LC-MS, UV, Fluorescence and NMR spectroscopy. The major metabolites were determined in fresh leaves of the food plant lima bean (Phaseoluslunatus), and were compared with digestive products. The observed spectrum of metabolites can be attributed to the combined action of esterolytic gut enzymes and the strongly alkaline milieu in the digestive tract. Interestingly, linear Chl catabolites were not detected in the gut of the larvae of S. littoralis. Substantial amounts of Chl catabolites were found to be macrocyclic rings opened in the senescent food plants, but also in the aged frass. We studied two primary fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites in senescent leaves of lima bean. One of the primary fluorescent chlorophyll catabolites that have been found in the frass of S. littoralis might be generating opened tetrapyrroles of Chl, only after being exposed to the air and light.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Amarsanaa Badgaa
AU  - Axel Mithoefer
AU  - Khureldavaa Otgonbayar
AU  - Christian Paetz
AU  - Wilhelm Boland
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/10/05
TI  - Chlorophyll Catabolites in Senescent Leaves of Lima Bean (Phaseolus Lunatus) and in the Frass of Spodoptera Littoralis After Defecation
BT  - Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Chemical Investigation and Utilization of Natural Resource (ICCIUNR-2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 58
EP  - 67
SN  - 2590-3195
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ahcps.k.211004.010
DO  - 10.2991/ahcps.k.211004.010
ID  - Badgaa2021
ER  -