Abstract
THE relatively large amounts of royal jelly acid (10-hydroxydec-2-enoic), about 8–9 per cent in lyophilized royal jelly, invites speculation as to its biosynthesis. Recently, Law and Weaver1 reported on experiments using isotopically labelled compounds in an effort to demonstrate formation of hydroxy fatty acids in worker bees. Sodium acetate-1-14C and sodium stearate-1-14C were fed to worker bees and also included in an incubation medium with excised mandibular glands. In both cases considerable radioactivity was detected in lipid extracts of the mandibular glands, but the hydroxy acid fraction did not become labelled.
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References
Law, J. H., and Weaver, N., Nature, 188, 938 (1960).
Brown, W. H., and Freure, R. J., Canad. J. Chem., 37, 2042 (1959).
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BROWN, W., FELAUER, E. & SMITH, M. Biosynthesis of Royal Jelly Acid from Sucrose. Nature 195, 75–76 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/195075a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/195075a0
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