Identification and Quantification of Pteridines in the Wild Type and the Mutant of (Hemiptera: Anthocoridae).

Nymphs of the mutant of (Fieber) are orange-colored instead of the yellowish color of the wild-type individuals. Since there were no previous studies of the pigments of this species, we searched for differences in pigments of the pteridine family between both strains. Fluorescent compounds from nymph extracts were separated by cellulose thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and by size exclusion chromatography, followed by LC/MS/MS. The present study has allowed the identification for the first time in of erythropterin, leucopterin, 7-methylxanthopterin, xanthopterin, isoxanthopterin, pterin, and biopterin. The quantification was performed by fluorometry after elution of the pteridines previously separated by TLC. The results showed that the orange color in the nymphs was due to the accumulation of the orange pigment erythropterin. Additionally, mutant nymphs exhibited significantly elevated levels of pterin and reduced levels of leucopterin. The possibility that these differences were due to differences in xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) activity was tested; the results indicated that XDH deficiency is unlikely to be responsible for the mutant phenotype. Considering that the mutation is recessive, the mutant phenotype should, most likely, be due to a disruption in downstream metabolic steps involved in erythropterin processing.