Sterol utilization and metabolism by Heliothis zea.

Heliothis zea (corn earworm), an insect that fails to synthesize sterols de novo, was reared on an artificial diet treated with 18 different sterol supplements. Larvae did not develop on a sterol-less medium. delta 5-Sterols with a hydrogen atom, a methylene group, an E- or Z-ethylidene group, or an alpha- or beta-ethyl group (cholesterol, ostreasterol, isofucosterol, fucosterol, sitosterol, and clionasterol, respectively) at position C-24, and delta 5-sterols doubly substituted in the side chain at C-24 with an alpha-ethyl group and at C-22 with a double bond (stigmasterol) supported normal larval growth to late-sixth instar (prepupal: maturity). The major sterol isolated from each of these sterol treatments was cholesterol, suggesting that H. zea operates a typical 24-dealkylation pathway. The sterol requirement of H. zea could not be met satisfactorily by derivatives of 3 beta-cholestanol with a 9 beta, 19-cyclopropyl group, gem dimethyl group at C-4, a delta 5,7-bond or delta 8-bond, or by side chain modified sterols that possessed a delta 25(27)-24 beta-ethyl group, delta 23(24)-24-methyl group or 24-ethyl group, or delta 24(25)-24-methyl or 24-ethyl group. The major sterol recovered from the larvae (albeit developmentally arrested larvae) treated with a nonutilizable sterol was the test compound. Sterol absorption was related to the degree of sterol utilization. The most effective sterols absorbed by the insect ranged from 27 to 66 micrograms per insect, whereas the least effective sterols absorbed by the insect ranged from 0.6 to 6 micrograms per insect. Competition experiments using different proportions of cholesterol and 24-dihydrolanosterol (from 9:1 to 1:9 mixtures) indicated that abnormal development of H. zea may be induced on less than a 1 to 1 mixture of utilizable (cholesterol) to nonutilizable (24-dihydrolanosterol) sterols. The results demonstrate new structural requirements for sterol utilization and metabolism by insects, particularly with respect to the position of double bonds in the side chain and functionalization in the nucleus. The novel sterol specificities observed in this study appear to be associated with the dual role of sterols as membrane inserts (nonmetabolic) and as precursors to the ecdysteroids (metabolic).