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Plant, Bacterial, and Fungal Cell Wall-Degrading Enzymes

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Molecular Physiology and Evolution of Insect Digestive Systems

Part of the book series: Entomology in Focus ((ENFO,volume 7))

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Abstract

Most insects have plant material in their diets. Plant cell walls are broken by mastication or under the action of plant cell wall-degrading enzymes. Primary plant cell walls, as those of grasses, are composed of cellulose, pectin, and a network of polysaccharides named hemicelluloses. Secondary plant cell walls, as those in wood, are formed by lignocellulose, which are cellulose and hemicelluloses cross-linked by lignin. Insect cellulases are always β-1,4-endoglucanases of family GH9 or GH45. GH9 cellulases are widespread but were lost in dipterans and lepidopterans. Those of GH45 were acquired by beetles of the clade Phytophaga by horizontal transfer from fungi. Despite the existence of endogenous cellulases, in many insects microbiota cellulases also concur. Pectinases are particularly important in hemipterans to facilitate the insertion of their stylets in sap-conducting structures and to beetles that bore plant tissues. Hemicellulases hydrolyze hemicelluloses. They are licheninases, laminarinases, xylanases, and mannanases. Laminarinases are widespread among insects and hydrolyze β-1,3-glucans (laminarins) and some of them, like the one of Tenebrio molitor, also hydrolyze yeast β-1,3-1,6-glucans. Laminarinases are supposed to digest fungal cells in contaminated food (T. molitor) or callose (lepidopterans), which is deposited in response to wounding caused by the larvae and that impairs nutrient availability for the larvae. The degradation of lignin can only be efficiently performed by oxidative depolymerization catalyzed by laccases aided by redox mediators that usually are produced by microbes. Because of that, most insects only attack wood partly digested by microbes. Fungi are nutrients for detritivorous and stored product insects. Digestive chitinases lack chitin-binding domains, so they are efficient in digesting fungi cell walls but are harmless for the peritrophic membrane. Lysozyme catalyzes the hydrolysis of the peptidoglycan of the cell walls of many bacteria. In insects, midgut lysozyme active in low pH is characteristic of cyclorrhaphous dipterans, in agreement with the fact that most of their larvae feed largely on bacteria. Insect digestive cellulases were studied in detail, including crystallography and resolution of their 3D structures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Walter R. Terra & Clelia Ferreira

  2. Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis - SC, Brazil

    Carlos P. Silva

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  1. Walter R. Terra
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  2. Clelia Ferreira
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  3. Carlos P. Silva
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Correspondence to Walter R. Terra .

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Terra, W.R., Ferreira, C., Silva, C.P. (2023). Plant, Bacterial, and Fungal Cell Wall-Degrading Enzymes. In: Molecular Physiology and Evolution of Insect Digestive Systems. Entomology in Focus, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39233-7_10

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