Achemotaxonomic study of cuticular hydrocarbon from tephritid fruit flies

• Main Author: Intan Roszaiyani, Zainol Abidin
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2008
• Subjects: QR Microbiology
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/33418/2/Intan.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/33418/

The aim of this project was to investigate the variation of hydrocarbon pattern in Tephritid fruit flies using Gas Chromatography techniques. This study is to find out whether or not cuticular hydrocarbons can be used as marker to identified fruit flies species instead of using morphological characteristics and genes. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed on n-alkane extracted from the cuticular of three species of Tephritid fruit flies namely Buctroceru clorculis, B. umbrosu and B. cucurbitae. Three replicates were carried out in each species for each extraction. Homologous series ranging from n-nonacosane to n-tetratriacontane (CGS, to C35) make up the n-alkane fraction. Odd-numbered alkanes are the predominant compounds in all species. The major n-alkane found in those species is n-hentriacontane (C31), n-dotriacontane (C32), and n-tritriacontane (C;, ). There were statistical significant differences in the pattern and compositions of n-alkane found in this three species.