Alarm Odor Compounds of the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Exhibit Antibacterial Activity

Some insects release scented compounds as a defense against predators that also exhibit antimicrobial activity. Trans-2-octenal and trans-2-decenal are the major alarm aldehydes responsible for the scent of Halyomorpha halys, the brown marmorated stink bug. Previous research has shown these aldehydes are antifungal and produce an antipredatory effect, but have never been tested for antibacterial activity. We hypothesized that these compounds functioned similarly to the analogous multifunctional action of earwig compounds, so we tested whether these aldehydes could inhibit the growth of bacteria. Disk diffusion assays indicated that these aldehydes significantly inhibited the growth of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, in vitro. Moreover, mealworm beetles (Tenebrio molitor) coated in stink bug aldehydes showed a substantial reduction in bacterial colonization compared to vehicle-treated insects. These results suggest that brown marmorated stinkbug aldehydes are indeed antibacterial agents and serve a multifunctional role for this insect. Therefore, stinkbug aldehydes may have potential for use as chemical antimicrobials.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Pharmacognosy & Natural Products

• Publication date

  2016-07-04

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.4172/2472-0992.1000119PMID 27656692PMCID 5027987
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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