Fatty Acid Analysis of Manduca Sexta

Conclusion

As a result of a broken vial, we cannot directly verify the the midgut of Manduca sexta produced prostaglandins.  From Büyükgüzel, 2002, we can confidently conclude that prostaglandins are produced within the midgut and actually saw the evidence from the GC/MS data originally obtained from that research team.  

The significance from this research is that we know that prostaglandins are produced in the Manduca sexta midgut and we also know from the lipid anaylsis of the midgut, that C20:4n-6 is not available for this synthesis. This would lead us to conclude that C20:4n-6 must come in some how; either from exogenous source or endogenous reaction from another fatty acid (like linoleic, C18:2n-6). If we find out how C20:4n-6 becomes available to the midgut, then we can identify a specific precursor path for prostaglandin biosynthesis.