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Identification of Fucosterol as a Metabolite and Probable Intermediate in Conversion of β-Sitosterol to Cholesterol in the Tobacco Hornworm

Nature New Biology volume 230, pages 57–58 (1971)Cite this article

Abstract

DURING previous work on the utilization and metabolism of phytosterols in insects we have isolated and identified desmo-sterol (24-dehydrocholesterol) as an intermediate in the conversion of 3H-β-sitosterol1, 2 to cholesterol in the tobacco horn-worm Manduca sexta (Johannson). We noted1, 2 the presence of a tritiated minor component in the hornworm sterols which behaved chromatographically like fucosterol (stigmasta-5,24(28)-dien-3β-ol). Fucosterol has been tentatively identified from gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) as a metabolite in the German cockroach Blattella germanica (Linnaeus), but the investigators report that their results were not always repro-ducible3. We wish to describe the positive identification of fucosterol as a metabolite of β-sitosterol in the tobacco hornworm and to present evidence for its occurrence as an intermediate in the conversion of β-sitosterol to cholesterol in this insect (Fig. 1).

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Insect Physiology Laboratory, Entomology Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, 20705

    J. A. SVOBODA, M. J. THOMPSON & W. E. ROBBINS

Authors
  1. J. A. SVOBODA
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  2. M. J. THOMPSON
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  3. W. E. ROBBINS
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SVOBODA, J., THOMPSON, M. & ROBBINS, W. Identification of Fucosterol as a Metabolite and Probable Intermediate in Conversion of β-Sitosterol to Cholesterol in the Tobacco Hornworm. Nature New Biology 230, 57–58 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio230057a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio230057a0

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