Abstract
The flight muscles of insects have a high α-glycerophosphatedehydrogenase activity, and according to Kennedy and others α-glycerophosphate is one of the components of α-lecithin in its biosynthesis.To throw some light on the metabolism of lipids in muscle, the author has studied the oxidation and dehydrogenation of lecithin especially in bee flight muscle comparing with muscles of rat, frog and sparrow. The results were as follows :
1) Addition of egg lecithin to the homogenate of bee flight muscle increases the rate of respiration in the presence of DPN by 10-15% and in the presence of methylene blue by 25%. The addition of egg lecithin to the homogenate of rat femoral muscle, however, does not increase respiration.
2) In the presence of NaF (or iodoacetate) and methylene blue, the addition of lecithin increases the rate of respiration of the homogenate of bee flight muscle more than twice as much as in the case without the addition of lecithin.
3) The muscles of bee, rat, frog and sparrow have been found to possess dehydrogenase activity both soy-been lecithin and egg lecithin. Among these muscles, bee flight muscle has the highest dehydrogenase activity upon both lecithin varieties.
