Major Digestive Carbohydrase During Larval Development of Meal Moth, Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

The digestive system of P. interpunctella was characterized during its larval development to determination of carbohydrases using disaccharides (sucrose and maltose) and polysaccharides (starch and inulin) as substrate. At 6th instar larval, Invertase>α-amylase> maltase activities peaks were observed. Invertase was fractionated with acetone and isolated. The Invertase was 485.5 fold purified by Sephacryl S-200 and DEAE-Sephadex. Its kinetic parameters were Km of 6.6 mM, Vmax of 0.48, pH optimum of 5.5 and temperature optimum of 30 ° C. This enzyme was activated by CaCl2 and inhibited by EDTA. When analyzed by SDSPAGE it showed one band of Mr 34 kDa. The understanding of the digestive system of P. interpunctella could be a key step in the design of bioinsecticides.