2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Communication of insects through body surface lipids: proposal of a new mechanism employing mechanoreceptors

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	18K19214
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Medium-sized Section 39:Agricultural and environmental biology and related fields
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	Kaneko Fumitoshi 大阪大学, 理学研究科, 准教授 (70214468)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	佐崎元北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 教授 (60261509) 長嶋剣北海道大学, 低温科学研究所, 助教 (60436079) 片桐千仭株式会社数理設計研究所, その他部局等, 研究員(移行) (90002245)
Project Period (FY)	2018-06-29 – 2020-03-31
Keywords	体表脂質 / 昆虫間コミュニケーション / 機械的受容器 / クロコオロギ / 不飽和脂質
Outline of Final Research Achievements	The outermost layer of insects is a very thin layer (0.1-1 μm) of hydrocarbons. In addition to their barrier functions to adopt the environment, the body lipid is used for the communication between insects. Although it is the common view that insects communicate each other by detecting the difference in the chemical composition of the body lipid by using chemical sensors on antennae, we have postulated the possibility that insects also detect the difference in the physical properties by mechanical sensors. To inspect the validity of this postulation, the body lipid of the field cricket, which shows a gender gap in composition, has been studied with respect to the structure and properties at in-situ on body surfaces by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and other methods. The friction force detected by AFM is clearly different between male, female, and degreased body surfaces, which strongly suggests that such differences are detected by the mechanical sensor systems of insects.
Free Research Field	高分子化合物と脂質化合物の構造化学および物理化学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	化学物質を利用する昆虫間コミュニケーションは、多くの分野から注目を集め、微量検出技術の発展により急速に研究が展開している。この流れで体表脂質の組成の違いを化学的受容器を用いて検出する昆虫間コミュニケーション機構についても多くの研究が行われてきたが、触角上にある機械的受容器を用いて体表脂質の物性の違いを感じ取る昆虫間コミュニケーションの機構に注目した研究はこれまで行われていない。本成果は、脂質構造化学、昆虫生化学、表面分析の異なる専門分野の研究者が協力し、その場分析の手法の特性を生かして、具体的に体表脂質に由来する昆虫体表物性の違いを検証した最初の例である。