Cockroach, Leucophaea maderae

Recently, the structure of a pheromone-binding protein from the cockroach Leucophaea maderae, LmadPBP (Fig. 8b) has been solved by X-ray crystallography [58]. Despite the fact that LmadPBP and BmorPBP shared low amino acid identity (15% similarity 22%) (Fig. 9), the two proteins present similar folds. 

In the Madera cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, male calling behavior involves the release of a sex pheromone from the abdominal sternal glands. The extracts of sternal glands attracted conspecific females over a distance and the compounds responsible were identified as hydroxy-3-butan-2-one, (27 , 37 )-butanediol, senecioic acid and ( )-2-octenoic acid. The same components are also present in the male tergal glands. 

Molecular characterization of Lma-p54, a new epicuticular surface protein in the cockroach Leucophaea maderae (Dictyoptera, Oxyhaloinae). Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 32 1635-1642. 

Holman G. M., Cook B. J. and Nachman R. J. (1986) Isolation, primary structure and synthesis of a blocked neuropeptide isolated from the cockroach, Leucophaea maderae. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 85C, 219-224. 

Comette R., Farine J-P, Quennedey B. and Brossut R. (2001) Molecular characterization of a new adult male putative calycin specific to tergal aphrodisiac secretion in the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. FEBS letters 507, 313-317. 

Riviere S., Lartigue A., Quennedey B., Campanacci V., Farine J. P., Tegoni M., Cambillau C. and Brossut R. (2003) A pheromone-binding protein from the cockroach Leucophaea maderae cloning, expression and pheromone binding. Biochem J. 371, 573-579. 

In this context the comparison of the insecticide diflubenzuron with the fungicide polyoxin D is interesting in more than one respect. It not only closes the circle in our paper, so to speak, but it can also furnish strong circumstantial evidence to support our hypothesis of the mode of action of diflubenzuron. Marks and Sowa were the first to compare diflubenzuron and polyoxin D in their effects on the A ecdyson-dependent in-vitro synthesis of chitin by the cockroach (Leucophaea maderae) leg regenerates (4, ) These authors found that both compounds almost completely inhibited the incorporation of C-labeled D-glucosamine into the chitin fraction. In a later study with 1 C-labeled N-acetyl-D-glucosamine similar results were obtained, and the I50 value of inhibition of chitin synthesis was found to be 6.1 1 x 10 -10m for diflubenzuron and 7.53 x 10"7 M for polyoxin D (4 8) The difference in intrinsic activity can partly be explained by the roughly hundredfold accumulation of dif lubenzuron in the insect tissue. 

In an effort to obtain more information on the nature of this substance, Holman and Cook (2) attempted to isolate and characterize the active agent from the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. Three substances were found in these extracts that stimulate the isolated hindgut. Two of the compounds were identified as L-glutamic acid and L-aspartic acid. When the hindgut was exposed to these amino acids, a single slow contraction resulted which was indistinguishable from a neurally evoked response. The third substance, however, caused a complex series of changes in the... 

Myotropic Insect Neuropeptide Families from the Cockroach Leucophaea maderae Structure—Activity Reiationships... 

A cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, was found to contain alcohol dehydrogenase in the fat bodies, the functions of which resemble the mammalian liver (504). A malaria mosquito, Anopheles stephensi, has three variants of alcohol dehydrogenase, corresponding to codominant alleles at a single, probably autosomal, locus (505). 

A vast body of information, including molecular and genetic studies, has accumulated on the role of PDFs mainly in D. melanogaster, the house fly, Musca domestica and the Madeira cockroach, Leucophaea maderae. All these activities have to do with rhythmic behaviours and biological clocks and it is suggested that PDFs act directly on brain or optic lobe neurons as both input and output factors for the circadian clock... 

Baratin, H-Asp-Asn-Ser-Gln-Trp-Gly-Gly-Phe-Ala-OH, a 9-peptide from the brain of the cockroach Leucophaea maderae. It appears to play a function in modulation of motor patterns in abdominal ganglia [D. R. Nassel et al., J. Comp. Neurol. 2000, 422, 267]. 

Leucokinins, a group of structurally related insect neuropeptides originally isolated from head extracts of the Madeira cockroach Leucophaea maderae. They stimulate gut motility and fluid secretion by Malpighian tubule in insects. Leu-cokinin I, H-Asp-Pro-Ala-Phe-Asn-Ser-Trp-Gly-NH2, and three other members of... 

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