IBBEA   24401
INSTITUTO DE BIODIVERSIDAD Y BIOLOGIA EXPERIMENTAL Y APLICADA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Effects of alcaloids on feeding behavior and metabolism of Rhodnius prolixus, vector of Chagas disease
Autor/es:
BARROZO, R.B.; MUÑOZ, I.; SCHILMAN, P.E.
Reunión:
Congreso; 4th Latin-American Association of Chemical Ecology (ALAEQ) & 32nd Annual Meeting of International Society of Chemical Ecology (ISCE); 2016
Resumen:
Through the sense of taste an individual can evaluate what they eat and drink, favoringconsumption of nutritious and avoiding intake of harmful and toxic substances that can inducediscomfort, illness or even death. Aversive substances can lead an animal to avoid feeding, evenif the alimentary source is not toxic per se. In different groups of insects, including triatomines(Reduviidae: Triatominae), it has been demonstrated that alcaloids stimulate taste receptorsgenerating an aversive response. However, it is still not clear if the ingestion of alcaloidsproduce a physiological change in triatomines. In this work, we investigated the effect ofdifferent alcaloids with anti-appetitive potential in the feeding behavior of R. prolixus, and weanalyzed its impact on their metabolism. For this purpose, we used an artificial feeder withdifferent solutions at 37 ± 2 °C where the insects fed for 10 minutes. The effect on feedingbehavior and metabolism was tested offering an appetitive solution (AS) of ATP in NaCl0,15M alone or in combination with the potential anti-appetitive alcaloid: caffeine, quinineand theophylline. We calculated the insect weight gain as feeding response and CO2 production as indirect measurement of metabolism. CO2 production was measured by openflow respirometry for individual insects immediately after being fed and three hours later. Wefound that R. prolixus detect alcaloids in a dose-dependent manner, decreasing feeding frequency and intake amount at higher concentrations. For all treatments, CO2 production slightly decreases after three hours of feeding. In addition, CO2 production was about five times higher for insects that consumed caffeine and theophylline compared to insects that consumed AS or quinine, suggesting costs associated with mechanisms of detoxification. To understand the mode of action of these molecules could help to develop new tools designed tocontrol and reduce host-vector interaction.