The Role of N,N,N-Trimethylglycine in Oviposition of Eurema mandarina on Albizia julibrissin

• Published in: Journal of chemical ecology Vol. 45; no. 4; pp. 371 - 377
• Main Authors: Ohashi, Toshiki, Ohta, Shinji, Ômura, Hisashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-04-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; Albizia julibrissin; Alkali metal compounds; Alkali metals; Ammonium; Ammonium compounds; Biochemistry; Biological Microscopy; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Choline; Dimethylglycine; Ecology; Entomology; Eurema mandarina; Glycine; Glycine betaine; High performance liquid chromatography; Leaves; Life Sciences; Liquid chromatography; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metal concentrations; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oviposition; Plant extracts; Quaternary ammonium salts; Quaternary ammonium compound; Host selection; Oviposition stimulant; Butterfly; Osmolyte
• ISSN: 0098-0331; 1573-1561
• DOI: 10.1007/s10886-019-01065-5

The common grass yellow
Eurema mandarina
(Lepidoptera: Pieridae) uses the silk tree
Albizia julibrissin
(Fabaceae) as a primary host in Japan. We previously reported that
d
-pinitol, a cyclitol found in fresh leaves of
A. julibrissin
, solely elicits moderate oviposition responses from females. However, the aqueous neutral/amphoteric fraction of the fresh leaf extract containing
d
-pinitol weakly induces oviposition. Moreover, the aqueous neutral/amphoteric/basic fraction was significantly more active than the neutral/amphoteric fraction in eliciting responses, indicating that some basic compounds are involved in stimulating oviposition. High-resolution mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance measurements revealed that the aqueous basic faction contains
N
,
N
,
N
-trimethylglycine (trivial name: glycine betaine) in alkali metal salt form. The average concentration of this quaternary ammonium compound in fresh leaves was estimated to be 0.012%
w
/
w
in high performance liquid chromatography analyses. The authentic
N
,
N
,
N
-trimethylglycine induced oviposition at concentrations greater than 0.001% (
w
/
v
) and slightly enhanced female responses to the aqueous neutral fraction and authentic
d
-pinitol. However, its analogues,
N
,
N
-dimethylglycine,
N
-methylglycine, and glycine as well as its precursor choline were inactive. These results demonstrate that
N
,
N
,
N
-trimethylglycine, together with
d
-pinitol, serves as an stimulant of
E. mandarina
for oviposition on the leaves of
A. julibrissin
.