GENETIC AND BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES ON AMINO ACID COMPOSITIONS AND COLOR MANIFESTATION IN PUPAL SHEATHS OF INSECTS

Abstract

The materials used consisted of the mutant strains, so and bp of Bombyx mori, bp and bwb of Musca domestica, eb of Drosophila virilis, e7 y and b of Drosophila melanogaster, and their wild type strains. In the pupal sheath of the wild type strain of Drosophila melanogaster, g-alanine was found, but it was absent in pupal sheaths of strains of black adult body color mutants like b and e. The content of [beta]-alanine in pupal sheaths of Musca and Drosophila strains, whose adult body colors were paler than those of the wild strains, was higher than in those of the wild type strains. A small amount of [beta]-alanine was detected from the pupal sheath of a double mutant, bwb; bp, of M. domestica. By means of reflux and proteinase digestion, a small amount of 8-alanine was liberated from the pupal sheath of the wild type strain, but its solubilization behavior was different from that of other amino acids. In the wild type strain of Musca, free [beta]-alanine in the body fluid rapidly increased at the very young pupal stage, but such a phenomenon was not observed in the bp mutant.