Browsing by Author "Gade, Gerd"

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    Biochemical indicators of the transportation stress of the South Africa abalone (perlemoen), Haliotis midae, Linn.
    (1999) Omolo, Samson Odira; Gade, Gerd; Cook, Peter; Brown, Alec C
    Abalone exposed to air incurred greater metabolic and structural stress in muscle than do abalone at rest. Since foot and shell adductor muscle texture and flavor affect economic values of H Midae, the investigation sought evidence of differences attributable to transport of the commercial South African abalone based on environmental and exercise inducement. Tauropine dehydrogenase from Haliotis. midae muscle exhibits its highest activity 53.85 X 13.56 U g-1 wet weight in shell adductor muscle. The activities of octopine dehyedrogenase, strombine dehydrogenase or alanopine dehydrogenase in adductor muscle were very low. Therefore, tauropine dehydrogenase was isolated from adductor muscles for enzymatic determination oftauropine. Tauropine dehydrogenase was purified 8.5-fold with 47% recovery.
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    Open Access
    Fuels for flight in the fruit beetle,Pachnoda Sinuata, and control of flight metabolism
    (1997) Auerswald, Lutz; Gade, Gerd
    Isolated flight muscle mitochondria of Pachnoda sinuata, Decapotoma lunata, Trichostetha fascicularis, Lepithrix sp. and Camenta innocua prefer the oxidation of proline, pyruvate and α- glycerophosphate, while those of Locusta migratoria prefer the oxidation of palmitoyl-carnitine,pyruvate and α-glycerophosphate. Palmitoyl-carnitine cannot be oxidised directly by P. sinuata flight muscle mitochondria, while proline is oxidised at low rates in locust mitochondria. At low concentrations of proline, the respiration rate during co-oxidation of proline and pyruvate is additive, while at high proline concentrations it is equal to the respiration rates of sole proline oxidation. Flight muscles of P. sinuata and D. lunata were found to have high activities of the enzymes alanine aminotransferase and NAD-dependent malic enzyme which are involved in proline metabolism, while the activities of these enzymes were lower in locust flight muscles. The activity of 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, an enzyme used in fatty acid oxidation, is low in the flight muscles of P. sinuata and D. lunata, but high in locust flight muscles. Enzymes involved In carbohydrate breakdown (glyceraldehyde-3-phosphatedehydrogenase, glycogen phosphorylase) were found to have high activities in flight muscles of P. sinuata, D. lunata and L. migratoria. Two methods of tethered flight were investigated. One of these allowed the animals to produce lift. During lift generating flight, proline concentrations in haemolymph and flight muscles of P. sinuata decrease sharply with concomitant increases in alanine concentrations. During recovery after flight, proline concentrations increase while concentrations of alanine decrease. Haemolymph carbohydrate concentrations increase during the first seconds off light but decline consistently thereafter. During a subsequent rest period concentrations again increase. Glycogen concentration in the flight muscles decrease sharply in the first few seconds of flight, gradually declining thereafter. During subsequent recovery, flight muscle glycogen concentrations increase. Lipid haemolymph concentration increase only slightly during flight and rest thereafter. Two distinct metabolic phases were observed during lift generating flight.
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    A proteomic approach for studying insect phylogeny: CAPA peptides of ancient insect taxa (Dictyoptera, Blattoptera) as a test case
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2009) Roth, Steffen; Fromm, Bastian; Gade, Gerd; Predel, Reinhard
    BACKGROUND: Neuropeptide ligands have to fit exactly into their respective receptors and thus the evolution of the coding regions of their genes is constrained and may be strongly conserved. As such, they may be suitable for the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships within higher taxa. CAPA peptides of major lineages of cockroaches (Blaberidae, Blattellidae, Blattidae, Polyphagidae, Cryptocercidae) and of the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis were chosen to test the above hypothesis. The phylogenetic relationships within various groups of the taxon Dictyoptera (praying mantids, termites and cockroaches) are still highly disputed. RESULTS: Tandem mass spectrometry of neuropeptides from perisympathetic organs was used to obtain sequence data of CAPA peptides from single specimens; the data were analysed by Maximum Parsimony and Bayesian Interference. The resulting cladograms, taking 61 species into account, show a topology which is in general agreement with recent molecular and morphological phylogenetic analyses, including the recent phylogenetic arrangement placing termites within the cockroaches. When sequence data sets from other neuropeptides, viz. adipokinetic hormones and sulfakinins, were included, the general topology of the cladogram did not change but bootstrap values increased considerably. CONCLUSION: This study represents the first comprehensive survey of neuropeptides of insects for solely phylogenetic purposes and concludes that sequences of short neuropeptides are suitable to complement molecular biological and morphological data for the reconstruction of phylogenetic relationships.