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      The cockroach Blattella germanica obtains nitrogen from uric acid through a metabolic pathway shared with its bacterial endosymbiont.

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          Abstract

          Uric acid stored in the fat body of cockroaches is a nitrogen reservoir mobilized in times of scarcity. The discovery of urease in Blattabacterium cuenoti, the primary endosymbiont of cockroaches, suggests that the endosymbiont may participate in cockroach nitrogen economy. However, bacterial urease may only be one piece in the entire nitrogen recycling process from insect uric acid. Thus, in addition to the uricolytic pathway to urea, there must be glutamine synthetase assimilating the released ammonia by the urease reaction to enable the stored nitrogen to be metabolically usable. None of the Blattabacterium genomes sequenced to date possess genes encoding for those enzymes. To test the host's contribution to the process, we have sequenced and analysed Blattella germanica transcriptomes from the fat body. We identified transcripts corresponding to all genes necessary for the synthesis of uric acid and its catabolism to urea, as well as for the synthesis of glutamine, asparagine, proline and glycine, i.e. the amino acids required by the endosymbiont. We also explored the changes in gene expression with different dietary protein levels. It appears that the ability to use uric acid as a nitrogen reservoir emerged in cockroaches after its age-old symbiotic association with bacteria.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Biol. Lett.
          Biology letters
          1744-957X
          1744-9561
          Jul 2014
          : 10
          : 7
          Affiliations
          [1 ] InstitutCavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, C/Catedràtic José Beltrán n° 2, Paterna 46980, Spain.
          [2 ] Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta n° 37-49, Barcelona 08003, Spain.
          [3 ] InstitutCavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, C/Catedràtic José Beltrán n° 2, Paterna 46980, Spain amparo.latorre@uv.es.
          [4 ] InstitutCavanilles de Biodiversitat i Biologia Evolutiva, Universitat de València, C/Catedràtic José Beltrán n° 2, Paterna 46980, Spain Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat de València, Burjassot 46100, Spain juli.pereto@uv.es.
          Article
          rsbl.2014.0407
          10.1098/rsbl.2014.0407
          25079497
          ab95cb05-689e-461e-a395-b05c45d41f1d
          © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.
          History

          Blattabacterium,asparagine,glutamine,glycine,nitrogen metabolism,proline

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