Abstract
Labial glands are present in all castes and developmental stages of all termite species. In workers, their secretion contains a food-marking pheromone and digestive enzymes, while soldier secretion plays a defensive role. However, these functions were studied only in a limited set of species, and do not allow drawing general conclusions. Hence, we have investigated the chemical composition of the labial gland extracts from soldiers and workers in 15 termite species belonging to 6 families using an integrative approach based on proteomic and small-molecule profiling. We confirmed the presence of hydroquinone and cellulase in the labial glands of workers, and we identified new toxic compounds in soldiers and workers of several species. Our results highlight the dual role of labial gland secretion, i.e. the defensive role in soldiers and workers of several termite species, and the digestive function in workers.
Publication types
-
Comparative Study
-
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
-
Amino Acid Sequence
-
Animals
-
Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel
-
Exocrine Glands / metabolism*
-
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
-
Insect Proteins / chemistry
-
Insect Proteins / metabolism
-
Isoptera / physiology*
-
Molecular Sequence Data
-
Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
Grants and funding
Financial support from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (RVO: 61388963) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank the Japan Society for Promotion of Science for financial support through a postdoctoral fellowship to TB (22-00393). This work was also supported by Grants-in-Aid for Young Scientists (21677001) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology of Japan. JŠ thanks the project from the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic QH91097 realized at Czech University of Life Sciences. JP was supported by grant 525/09/P600 from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.