Mechanism of mannose toxicity.

Mannose toxicity in honeybees is due to a marked shortage of mannosephosphate isomerase that leads to a large accumulation of mannose-6-P and a marked depletion of ATP. Drosophila melanogaster and Ceratitis capitata are insensitive to mannose and have excess of mannosephosphate isomerase over hexokinase. 2-Deoxyglucose is as toxic as mannose for honeybees and is toxic also for the other insects studied, which supports the conclusion that the mechanism of mannose toxicity involves large accumulation of a hexosephosphate.