Laboratory colonization has not reduced constitutive or induced polysubstrate monooxygenase activity in velvetbean caterpillars.

We evaluated whether velvetbean caterpillars (Anticarsia gemmatalis) from a laboratory colony had reduced constitutive (basal) and/or induced activities of their polysubstrate monooxygenase (PSMO) detoxification enzyme system as a result of long-term rearing (> 100 generations) on artificial diet without introduction of field-collected individuals. Larvae from the laboratory colony and those from a recently collected field strain were fed either a standard artificial diet (control), one containing the inducing allelochemical, flavone, or foliage ofIndigofera hirsuta (a host plant of this species), and their midgut PSMO activity was assessed by measuring the in vitro rate of aldrin epoxidation. Compared with the field-strain larvae, caterpillars from the laboratory colony had 1.9-fold greater constitutive activity (standard artificial diet) and 2.3-fold greater induced activity (flavone-treated diet). In addition, the magnitude of induction was somewhat greater for the laboratory-colony larvae (induced activity was 2.0-fold greater than constitutive activity) compared with those from the field-strain (1.6-fold). In contrast, no difference in strain activity was found when larvae were fedI. hirsuta foliage. The lower PSMO activity of the field-strain larvae when fed artificial diet may have been caused by their reduced feeding and growth performance compared with laboratory-colony larvae, and it may explain their greater sensitivity to allelochemicals incorporated in the artificial diet, as we found previously. The results of this study indicate that long-term rearing of theA. gemmatalis laboratory colony on artificial diet, without the introduction of field individuals, apparently has not selected for low constitutive activity or decreased inducibility of PSMO, and thus these larvae provide a suitable model for studying xenobiotic detoxication. In addition, they suggest that using an artificial diet to evaluate resistance to pesticides or other xenobiotics in fieldcollected insects, as is frequently done, may underestimate the level of resistance if the diet, through various causes, reduces the activity of detoxification enzymes contributing to the resistance.