Entometabolomics: applications of modern analytical techniques to insect studies

Abstract

Metabolomic analyses can reveal associations between an organism's metabolome and further aspects of its phenotypic state, an attractive prospect for many life‐sciences researchers. The metabolomic approach has been employed in some, but not many, insect study systems, starting in 1990 with the evaluation of the metabolic effects of parasitism on moth larvae. Metabolomics has now been applied to a variety of aspects of insect biology, including behaviour, infection, temperature stress responses, 2 sedation, and bacteria–insect symbiosis. From a technical and reporting standpoint, these studies have adopted a range of approaches utilising established experimental methodologies. Here, we review current literature and evaluate the metabolomic approaches typically utilised by entomologists. We suggest that improvements can be made in several areas, including sampling procedures, the reduction in sampling and equipment variation, the use of sample extracts, statistical analyses, confirmation, and metabolite identification. Overall, it is clear that metabolomics can identify correlations between phenotypic states and underlying cellular metabolism that previous, more targeted, approaches are incapable of measuring. The unique combination of untargeted global analyses with high‐resolution quantitative analyses results in a tool with great potential for future entomological investigations.

Sustenance and Performance: Nutritional Reserves, Longevity, and Contest Outcomes of Fed and Starved Adult Parasitoid Wasps

“…Although it has antecedents in contest studies that focussed on a small sub-set of metabolites (e.g., Briffa and Elwood, 2007) and in studies of the effect of feeding on parasitoid contest behaviour without the associated metabolic analysis (Tsai et al, 2014), ours is the first study to explicitly couple the untargeted metabolomics approach (Snart et al, 2015) with the study of dyadic animal contests (Hardy and Briffa, 2013). Despite the small size of the organisms involved, this methodology is capable of reliably producing identifiable NMR spectra associated with different diet treatments (Kapranas et al, 2016) and as such has potential for application to a wide range of studies of the behaviour and ecology of small insects and other organisms.…”

“…To explore whether feeding on carbohydrates, such as honey, during the adult stage affects the subsequent energy reserves, longevity and contest performance of female G. legneri, we: (1) Employ a metabolomics approach (Snart et al, 2015;Kapranas et al, 2016) to assess how feeding on a carbohydrate-rich honey diet affects the concentrations of lipids, carbohydrates and other metabolites in individual parasitoids; (2) Compare the lifespans of starved wasps with those of wasps provided with carbohydraterich honey diet; (3) Stage contests for host possession between pairs of females, either both young or both old, in which one contestant was fed on honey and the other one was left unfed.…”

Reproductive biology of Sclerodermus brevicornis, a European parasitoid developing on three species of invasive longhorn beetles

“…Nutritional quality can also directly affect trophic interactions by influencing the morphology, behavior, and lifehistories of insects (Harvey et al, 2003;Bukovinszky et al, 2008). Future assessment of the key nutritional differences between ALB, CLB and YLB, and their effects on the biochemical profiles of Sclerodermus offspring produced, could employ a metabolomics approach (Snart et al, 2015;Kapranas et al, 2016a).…”

Metabolomics reveal physiological changes in mayfly larvae (Neocloeon triangulifer) at ecological upper thermal limits

“…In the last decade, metabolomic analyses have been widely used to study insect physiology (Snart et al, 2015). This approach offers physiological insights by comparing changes in the presence and abundance of numerous compounds in tissues or whole organisms.…”