Studies on the Resistance of Chestnut Trees (Castanea spp.) to Chestnut Gall Wasps (Dryocosmus kuriphilus YASUMATSU)

VIII. Sugars and Aminoacids in Healthy and Gall Tissues of the Host and in the Parasitical Larval Bodies

Abstract

Gall tissues including wasps obtained from trees of susceptible varieties contained markedly more sugars than the healthy tissues. The sugars in the former were largely composed of glucose, fructose, xylose and ribose, together with a small amount of sucrose for which the content varied with the variety. On the other hand, the latter contained sucrose as the main sugar with little or none of the others. In resistant varieties, not only healthy but also gall tissues contained the sugars at a similar level and with similar constituents to the above mentioned healthy tissues of susceptible varieties.
Sugars contained in the larval body were small in amount and consisted of glucose, ribose and two other unknowns.
Both galls and larvae from the susceptible varieties had large contents of the principal aminoacids and especially the former contained a high level of asparagine.
Aminoacid content of galls from the susceptible varieties was about 6 times as high as that for the healthy tissues. On the contrary, in galls of the resistant varieties the content was very low or at the same level as the healthy tissues.