Cholinesterase activity of tissues of adult melanoplus differentialis (Orthoptera, Acrididae)

✍ Scribed by Means, Oliver W.

• Book ID: 102311221
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1942
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 329 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030200307

✦ Synopsis

Recent investigations have revealed that cholinesterase is concentrated in vertebrate nerve fibers, synapses and motor end plates (Nachmansohn, '40 ; Sawyer, '42). The results reported here represent an attempt to supply quantitative figures on the cholinesterase activity of insect tissues. One of the first determinations of the cholinesterase of insects was reported by Bacq ( '35) who found that blood from three species exhibited no perceptible ability to hydrolyze acetylcholine. Estract s of grasshopper tissue showed no appreciable cholinesterase :ictivity when tested pharmacologically (Hamilton, '39), although Corteggiani and Serfatp ( '39) obtained positive results from pharmacological tests of the head, cerebral ganglia and nerve cords of several insects and arachnids.

During the course of the present investigation the study of Mikalonis and Brown ( '41) appeared which indicated, again by pharmacological methods, that the ventral nerve cord of Periplaneta americana contains considerable amounts of cholinesterase. I n abstract, Tahmisian ( '41) described the changes in cholinesterase content of grasshopper embryos during development. He also found that injection of acetylcholine into