Abstract

BELIZARIO CANTAGALLI, LIRIANA; ALVES LOPES, DENISE; PAZ BARATEIRO STUCHI, ANA LÚCIA  and  COLLA RUVOLO-TAKASUSUKI, MARIA CLAUDIA. LEAF-CUTTING ANTS Acromyrmex niger SMITH, 1858(HYMENOPTERA; FORMICIDAE) USED AS BIOINDICATORS OF AGROTOXICS RESIDUES. Acta biol.Colomb. [online]. 2014, vol.19, n.2, pp.233-240. ISSN 0120-548X.  https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v19n2.38343.

Despite the condition of leaf-cutting ant pests in agroecosystems, it is undeniable the benefits they can bring in certain situations or environments. The leaf-cutting ants of the genus Acromyrmex attack mainly leaves of vegetables and fruit trees exposing not only to the agrochemicals used for their control as well as to those used for the control of other pests. Due to the bioindicator potential of environmental quality of the ants and their frequent exposure to agrochemicals such as organophosphates, neonicotinoids and growth regulators insecticide used for pest control, it is necessary to study the sublethal effects that these pesticides may cause. The electrophoresis technique was used to study the activity of esterase isozymes involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics of A. niger , combined with changes in the expression of isozymes after contamination by pesticides. A. niger showed eight regions of esterase activity, which were called EST-1, EST-2, EST-3, EST-4, EST-5, EST-6, EST-7 and EST-8 according to the electrophoretic mobility. As the specificity to ± and b-naphthyl acetate substrates, the Est- 7 and Est-8 may be ified as ±-esterase and the others as ±b esterases. EST-5 is considered an enzyme of the type cholinesterase II and the others are of the type carboxilesterase. The electrophoretic analysis showed partial inhibition to all esterases subjected to the contact with Malathion organophosforate at the concentrations 1 x 10-3 % and 5 x 10-3 %, which may be considered as a biomarker for the presence of residues of this insecticide in the environment. The regression analysis for sublethal effects of the tested pesticides demonstrated correlation between dose and mortality only for Thiametoxam neonicotinoid pesticide.

Keywords : Acromyrmex Niger ; esterases; bioindicators.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in English     · English ( pdf )