An in vivo assay for elucidating the importance of cytochromes P450 for the ability of a wild mammalian herbivore (Neotoma lepida) to consume toxic plants.

An in vivo assay using the cytochrome P450 (P450) suicide inhibitor 1-aminobenzotriazole (ABT) and 24-h food intake was developed to determine the relative importance of P450s in two populations of Neotoma lepida with respect to biotransformation of plant secondary compounds in the animals' natural diets. The efficacy of ABT as a P450 inhibitor was first validated using hypnotic-state assays with and without pretreatment with ABT. Pretreatment with 100 mg/kg ABT by gavage increased hexobarbital sleep times 3-4-fold in both populations, showing effective inhibition of P450s in woodrats. Next, the Great Basin population was fed a terpene-rich juniper diet, and the Mojave population was fed a phenolic-rich creosote diet, with rabbit chow serving as the control diet in each group. Treatment with ABT inhibited food intake in the Great Basin population fed the juniper diet to a greater extent (35%) than the Great Basin population fed the control diet (19%) or the Mojave population fed the creosote diet (16%). The food intake of the Mojave population fed the control diet was not significantly inhibited by ABT. The findings suggest that the biotransformation of terpenes in juniper relies more heavily on P450s than that of phenolics in creosote. This assay provides an inexpensive and noninvasive method to explore the relative importance of P450s in the biotransformation strategies of wild mammalian herbivores.