Madera cockroach

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. 

The leucokinins constitute a family of eight myotropic octapeptides also isolated from L. maderae cockroach head extracts (Table IV)... 

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. 

Fig. 9 Alignment of the amino acid sequences of pheromone-binding proteins from the silkworm moth B. mori and the cockroach L. maderae, BmorPBP and LmadPBP,respectively and a putative odorant-binding protein from D. melanogaster, LUSH. In LmadPBP and LUSH the N-terminal sequence of the mature proteins were predicted by cleaving signal peptides in silico [28,79], whereas in BmorPBP this was confirmed by the sequence of the isolated protein [38]...

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. 

Ferstl S., Weber J. and Bohn H. (1988) Conditions for the association of the two clotting proteins of the cockroach Rhyparobia (Leucophaea) maderae (Blattaria). J. Comp. Physiol. 158, 527-535. 

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. 

Tartivita and Jackson (1970) compared the CHCs of Blatta orientalis, another household pest in the Blattidae family, with those of Leucophaea maderae in the Blaberidae family. Findings showed that the major hydrocarbons in the surface lipids of both cockroaches were -heptacosane, 11-methylheptacosane, 13-methylheptacosane and 3-methylhepta-cosane, and indicated that these components were qualitatively identical and quantitatively similar. 

Everaerts et al. (1997) reported species-specific profiles based on comparison of CHCs from L. maderae with those from Nauphoeta cinerea, not an urban pest but widely used by herpetologists. In the same paper the authors mentioned unpublished results on a good species-specific correlation of CHCs in 30 cockroach species. 

Everaerts, C., Farine, J.-P. and Brossut, R. (1997). Changes of species cuticular hydrocarbons profiles in the cockroaches Nauphoeta cinerea and Leucophaea maderae reared in heterospecific groups. Entomol. Exp. Applic., 85,145-150. 

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. 

The octapeptide leucopyrokinin (LPK) was the eleventh and final myotropic peptide isolated from L. maderae (11). Unlike the leucokinins and LSK s, LPK exhibits a myotropic activity on the muscles of the cockroach foregut and oviduct (Holman, G. M. and Nachman, R. J., unpublished observation.). LPK was the highest titered of the Leucophaea myotropins (1.36 pmol/head) but was the least potent on the isolated hindgut preparation (threshold concentration -0.6 nM). LPK shares a 50% sequence identity with Pea-HTH-II at the 1, 4, 5, and 6 positions and is amidated at the C-terminus. Yet LPK does not contain Trp, which is present at position 8 in every AKH/RPCH peptide. Furthermore, LPK is positively charged with a residue of Arg at position 8. These structural observations show that LPK is not a member of the AKH/RPCH family. A study of LPK analogs supports this view (20). 

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... 

The oviducts of the cockroaches L. maderae (31) and P. americana (32) also contain proctolin. In both instances, quantitative estimates of proctolin-like bioactivity were made following the separation of extracts on reverse-phase HPLC. After depolarization of the tissue in high potassium saline, the proctolin-like substance in . americana was released from oviducts in a calcium dependent fashion. Oviducts in L. maderae (31) showed some responsiveness to proctolin in a calcium-free medium and the peptide also appeared to facilitate the re-entry of calcium into muscle after depleted preparations were returned to normal levels of external calcium. 

The leucokinins (LK s) are a new class of insect myotropic neuropeptides isolated from head extracts of the cockroach L. maderae. These octapeptides all contain a similar core sequence of 5 amino acids that extend from position 4 through 8. This sequence Phe-X-Ser-Trp-Gly-NH2 seems to be required for hindgut stimulation. The initial response of the hindgut to the LK s was characterized by an increase in the frequency and/or amplitude of phasic contractions (50, ). At higher peptide concentrations, a tonic component was generally present. All of the LK s showed a response at 3 x 10 M that was 5-10% above the mean level of spontaneous activity. The maximum response for each of the peptides was recorded at a concentration 2.1 X 10" M. Thus, the intrinsic activities for the LK s are nearly equal because the dose-response curves have about the same asymptotic limits. A comparison of the dose concentrations that gave a half maximal response (ED q) for the 8 peptides is shown in Table I. 

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

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