Publication details
Určování věku u hmyzu v závislosti na množství pteridinů v očích: případová studie na štěnicích rodu Cimex
| Title in English | Determination of age in insect depending on the amount of pteridines in the eyes: case study on bedbugs of genus Cimex |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | The work of the last few decades shows that the individual age of different insect species can be determined through the concentration of pteridines (fluorescent pigments) in the eyes. However, we have found that there are a number of methodological inconsistencies in using concentrations of pteridines. For this reason, we tested the applicability of individual pteridine standards, the method of pteridine extraction, the presence of pteridines in various parts of the body, and the possibility of extracting pteridines under light. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to determine pteridine concentrations. Our results suggest that leukopterin, which is primarily in the eyes and shows no significant difference between light and dark extraction, is the most suitable pteridine for determining age in bedbugs. Thus, unlike most published procedures, our work shows that extraction can be performed under light, which greatly facilitates sample preparation while reducing error rates. At the same time, we were able to demonstrate that the amount of leukopterin depends on the age of the bug and thus we can construct a calibration curve of the concentration of pteridines in the eyes to the age of the individual, which can be used to determine the age of bugs collected in the field. In the case of bedbugs (C. lectularius), the age of the female and the changing ability to maintain viable sperm appear to be an important parameter in studying ecological speciation and reproductive isolation of two host lines parasitizing on humans and bats. In laboratory conditions, we found that the numbers of copulation scars correlated significantly with the number of copulations. Therefore, an optimized age determination method will be applicable to testing the difference in age of first mating females in both host lines. |
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