A VOIDANCE OF NONPROTEIN AMINO ACID INCORPORATION INTO PROTEIN BY THE SEED PREDATOR, Caryedes brasiliensis (BRUCHIDAE)

Abstract

Larvae of the bruchid beetle, Caryedes brasiliensis (Bruchidae) have the ability to avoid significant incorporation of L-canavanine, the guanidinooxy structural analog of L-arginine, into de novo synthesized proteins. This ability is related to a highly discriminatory proteinsynthesizing system which exhibits marked ability to avoid processing an array of nonprotein amino acids structurally related to arginine.