Soybean is one of most consumed and produced grains in the world, and Anticarsia gemmatalis is a pest that causes great damage to this crop due to severe defoliation during its larval phase. Plants have mechanisms that lead to the inhibition of proteases in the intestine of these herbivores, hampering their development. Understanding this complex protease inhibitor is important for pest control. The objective of this study was to evaluate the enzymatic profiles of the intestinal proteases of the soybean caterpillar at different instars. For this, the proteolytic profile of the gut in the third, fourth, and fifth instars were analyzed.Irreversible inhibitors of proteases were separately incubated with A. gemmatalis enzyme extracts at the third, fourth, and fifth instar to assess the contribution of these proteases to total proteolytic activity. The enzymatic extracts were also evaluated with specific substrates to confirm changes in the specific activities of trypsin-like, chymotrypsin-like, and cysteine proteases at different instars. The results showed that the protease profile of A.gemmatalis gut changes throughout its larval development.The activity of cysteine proteases was more intense in the first instar. On the contrary, the serine proteases The protease profile of the gut of A. gemmatalis changes throughout larval development. In the third instar, cysteine protease activity is predominant over others. In the fourth and fifth instars, proteolytic activity is mainly due to serine proteases. This difference in activity in the different instars of A. gemmatalis suggests that the expression of the genes coding for proteases also changes throughout the development of the insect. Using serine PIs is a good strategy for controlling insect pests, as these are the main proteolytic enzymes of Lepidoptera. However, the presence of other important protease subclasses in insect digestibility suggests that a combination of serine and cysteine PIs may be promising, aiming to compromise larval development at different instars.

The spittlebugs Mahanarva spectabilis economically challenges cattle production of neotropical regions, due to its voracious feeding on tropical grasses.Here, we evaluated biochemical responses of the interaction between M. spectabilis and the widely cultivated tropical grasses Brachiaria spp. (i.e., brizantha and decumbens) and elephant grasses (cvs. Roxo de Botucatu and Pioneiro), regarding lipoxygenases, protease inhibitors, phytohormones, and proteolytic activities in the midgut of M.spectabilis. The M. spectabilis-infested grasses increased lipoxygenases activity, except for cv. Pioneiro. The levels of the phytohormones jasmonic and abscisic acids were similarly low in all genotypes and increased under herbivory. Furthermore, salicylic acid concentration was constitutively higher in Brachiaria sp., increasing only in spittlebuginfested B. decumbens. M. spectabilis infestations did not induce increases of protease inhibitors in any forage grass type. The trypsin activity remained unaltered, and the total proteolytic activity increased only in B. decumbens-fed insects. Our fi ndings revealed that most forage grasses exposed to spittlebugs activate the lipoxygenases pathway, resulting in increased abscisic and jasmonic acids. However, greater amounts of these hormones do not induce protease inhibitory activity in response to spittlebug attack. This knowledge certainly helps to guide future projects aiming at reducing the impact of spittlebugs on forage production.

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