Pollen feeding proteomics: salivary proteins of the passion flower butterfly, Heliconius melpomene.

Pollen feeding proteomics: salivary proteins of the passion flower butterfly, Heliconius melpomene. Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2015 May 7; Authors: Harpel D, Cullen DA, Ott SR, Jiggins CD, Walters JR Abstract While most adult Lepidoptera use flower nectar as their primary food source, butterflies in the genus Heliconius have evolved the novel ability to acquire amino acids from consuming pollen. Heliconius butterflies collect pollen on their proboscis, moisten the pollen with saliva, and use a combination of mechanical disruption and chemical degradation to release free amino acids that are subsequently re-ingested in the saliva. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms of this complex pollen feeding adaptation. Here we report an initial shotgun proteomic analysis of saliva from Heliconius melpomene. Results from liquid-chromatography tandem mass-spectrometry confidently identified 31 salivary proteins, most of which contained predicted signal peptides, consistent with extracellular secretion. Further bioinformatic annotation of these salivary proteins indicated the presence of four distinct functional classes: proteolysis (10 proteins), carbohydrate hydrolysis (5), immunity (6), and "housekeeping"(4). Additionally, six proteins could not be functionally annotated beyond containing a predicted signal sequence. The presence of several salivary proteases is consistent with previous demonstrations that Heliconius saliva has proteoly...
Source: Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Insect Biochem Mol Biol Source Type: research