TY - JOUR A1 - Golian, M. A1 - Bien, T. A1 - Schmelzle, S. A1 - Esparza- Mora, M. A. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter A1 - Dreisewerd, K. A1 - Buellesbach, J. ED - Appel, Arthur G. T1 - Neglected Very Long-Chain Hydrocarbons and the Incorporation of Body Surface Area Metrics Reveal Novel Perspectives for Cuticular Profile Analysis in Insects JF - Insects N2 - Most of our knowledge on insect cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) stems from analytical techniques based on gas-chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). However, this method has its limits under standard conditions, particularly in detecting compounds beyond a chain length of around C40. Here, we compare the CHC chain length range detectable by GC-MS with the range assessed by silver-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (Ag-LDI-MS), a novel and rarely applied technique on insect CHCs, in seven species of the order Blattodea. For all tested species, we unveiled a considerable range of very long-chain CHCs up to C58, which are not detectable by standard GC-MS technology. This indicates that general studies on insect CHCs May frequently miss compounds in this range, and we encourage future studies to implement analytical techniques extending the conventionally accessed chain length range. Furthermore, we incorporate 3D scanned insect body surface areas as an additional factor for the comparative quantification of extracted CHC amounts between our study species. CHC quantity distributions differed considerably when adjusted for body surface areas as opposed to directly assessing extracted CHC amounts, suggesting that a more accurate evaluation of relative CHC quantities can be achieved by taking body surface areas into account. KW - Cuticular hydrocarbons KW - Blattodea KW - GC-MS KW - Ag-LDI-MS KW - Chemical ecology PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-543530 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/insects13010083 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 2 EP - 10 PB - MDPI CY - Basel, Schweiz AN - OPUS4-54353 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sieksmeyer, T. A1 - He, S. A1 - Esparza-Mora, M. A. A1 - Jiang, S. A1 - Petrasiunaite, V. A1 - Kuropka, B. A1 - Banasiak, Robert A1 - Julseth, M. J. A1 - Weise, C. A1 - Johnston, P. R. A1 - Rodriguez-Rojas, A. A1 - McMahon, Dino Peter T1 - Eating in a losing cause: Limited benefit of modifed macronutrient consumption following infection in the oriental cockroach Blatta orientalis JF - BMC ecology and evolution N2 - Background: Host–pathogen interactions can lead to dramatic changes in host feeding behaviour. One aspect of this includes self-medication, where infected individuals consume substances such as toxins or alter their macronutrient consumption to enhance immune competence. Another widely adopted animal response to infection is illness-induced anorexia, which is thought to assist host immunity directly or by limiting the nutritional resources available to pathogens. Here, we recorded macronutrient preferences of the global pest cockroach, Blatta orientalis to investigate how shifts in host macronutrient dietary preference and quantity of carbohydrate (C) and protein (P) interact with immunity following bacterial infection. Results: We fnd that B. orientalis avoids diets enriched for P under normal conditions, and that high P diets reduce cockroach survival in the long term. However, following bacterial challenge, cockroaches signifcantly reduced their overall nutrient intake, particularly of carbohydrates, and increased the relative ratio of protein (P:C) consumed. Surprisingly, these behavioural shifts had a limited efect on cockroach immunity and survival, with minor changes to immune protein abundance and antimicrobial activity between individuals placed on diferent diets, regardless of infection status. Conclusions: We show that cockroach feeding behaviour can be modulated by a pathogen, resulting in an illness-induced anorexia-like feeding response and a shift from a C-enriched to a more P:C equal diet. However, our results also indicate that such responses do not provide signifcant immune protection in B. orientalis, suggesting that the host’s dietary shift might also result from random rather than directed behaviour. The lack of an apparent beneft of the shift in feeding behaviour highlights a possible reduced importance of diet in immune regulation in these invasive animals, although further investigations employing pathogens with alternative infection strategies are warranted. KW - Animal immune system KW - A key interface KW - Host and symbiont ecology KW - Behavioural mechanisms KW - Biotic environment PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-550022 DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-02007-8 SN - 2730-7182 VL - 22 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 14 PB - Springer Nature CY - London, UK AN - OPUS4-55002 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -