There is the potential to increase the production yield within the emerging insect industry in order to produce high-quality, sustainable protein. In invertebrates, the monoamine, octopamine (OA), has a similar role to that of noradrenaline in mammals. Beta-2 adrenergic agonists increase protein and decrease fat deposition in mammals, thereby inducing favourable changes in body composition. We hypothesised that OA would have similar effects in insects. Tenebrio molitor larvae, commonly called yellow mealworms, were fed for 35 days on either control wheat bran or wheat bran containing OA at 5 μg OA/g. There were trends for treatment × time interactions for mealworm group weight (P = 0.075) and individual mealworm weight (P = 0.069), with the OA group becoming heavier/bigger after 18 days. In addition, there was a trend for a treatment × time interaction on cumulative pupation (P = 0.099), with OA-treated mealworms having delayed pupation. After 35 days of OA treatment, there were significant effects on mealworm final body proximate nutrient composition on a DM basis, with fat content being significantly decreased (by 8%, P = 0.006), whilst CP was significantly increased (by 6%, P = 0.019) in OA-treated mealworms compared to control. There was little effect of OA on the fatty acid composition of the mealworms, with small reductions in palmitoleic acid (P < 0.001) and oleic acid (P = 0.082). Despite a significant increase in protein content with OA treatment, SDS-PAGE did not reveal any changes in the proteins being expressed. Hence, OA treatment of mealworms resulted in an increase in the proportion of protein and a decrease in fat, demonstrating that mealworm nutrient composition can potentially be manipulated to provide a higher-value feed ingredient.

Keywords: Deposition; Insects; Monoamine; Nutrients; Repartitioning.

Copyright © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

有可能通过提高新兴昆虫行业的产量来生产高质量、可持续的蛋白质。在无脊椎动物中，单胺类物质八胺（OA）与哺乳动物中的去甲肾上腺素具有类似的作用。β-2肾上腺素受体激动剂可以增加哺乳动物的蛋白质沉积并减少脂肪沉积，从而诱导身体成分的变化。我们假设八胺在昆虫中也会产生类似的效应。黄粉虫幼虫（俗称黄粉虫）在一个为期35天的实验期间被喂食控制组的小麦麸或含5 μg OA/g小麦麸。对于虫群重量(P = 0.075)和个体黄粉虫重量(P = 0.069)，存在时间与处理交互作用的趋势，从第18天开始，OA组变得更重更大。此外，累计蛹化（P = 0.099）的时间与处理交互作用也显示出趋势，经过OA处理的黄粉虫表现出延迟蛹化的现象。在35天的OA处理后，与对照相比，经过OA处理的黄粉虫最终身体接近成分显著改变，在干物质基础上，脂肪含量显著减少（减少了8%，P = 0.006），而粗蛋白含量则显著增加（增加了6%，P = 0.019）。八胺对黄粉虫的脂肪酸组成影响不大，仅有棕榈油酸(P

关键词：沉积；昆虫；单胺类物质；营养素；重新分配。

版权所有 © 2025 The Authors. 出版方为 Elsevier B.V.。保留所有权利。