Transport of d-galactose by the gastrointestinal tract of the locust, Locusta migratoria

Due to exoskeleton, the absorption of nutrients in adult insects takes place across the gastrointestinal tract epithelium. In most physiological studies, sugar intestinal absorption has been described as a diffusional process and to date no sugar transporter has been cloned from the digestive tract of insects. In the present work, the existence of a saturable transport system for galactose in the gastric caeca of Locusta migratoria is clearly demonstrated. This transport shows a relatively high affinity for galactose (apparent K0.5 = 2–3 mM) and is inhibited by glucose, 2-deoxyglucose and with less potency by fructose and α-methyl-d-glucoside. The absence of sodium or the presence of phloridzin hardly affects galactose absorption, indicating that it is not mediated by a SGLT1-like transporter. The absence of K+, Cl−, Mg2+ and Ca2+ or changes in the pH do not modify galactose absorption either. Nevertheless, phloretin, cytochalasin B and theophylline (inhibitors of facilitative transporters) decrease sugar uptake around 50%. Xenopus laevis oocytes microinjected with poly A+ RNA isolated from gastric caeca show sodium-independent galactose uptake that is three times higher than in non-injected oocytes, further supporting the existence of a mRNA coding for at least one equilibrative sugar transporter in L. migratoria gastric caeca.