**Role of Inorganic Polyphosphate in the Energy Metabolism of Ticks**

Eldo Campos1,4, Arnoldo R. Façanha2,4, Jorge Moraes1,4 and Carlos Logullo3,4 *1Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Macaé 2Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense 3Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense 4Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia - Entomologia Molecular Brazil* 

## **1. Introduction**

142 Bioenergetics

Tambovtseva, R.V. (2003) *Vozrastnye i tipologicheskie osobennosti energetiki myshechnoi* 

Topol'skii, V.I. (1951) [Age peculiarities of circulation at shoulder muscles in humans]. In:

Treuth, M.S., Butte, N.F. & Herrick, R. (2001) Skeletal muscle energetics assessed by (31)P-

Tsehmistrenko, T.A., Vasil'eva, V.A., Shumeiko, N.S. & Chernyh, N.A. (2009) [Structural

Tverskaya, R., Rising, R., Brown, D. & Lifshitz, F. (1998) Comparison of several equations

Ugolev, A.M., Efimova, N.V. & Skvortsova, N.B. (1976) [Functions of the intestinal hormonal (enterin) system]. *Usp Fiziol Nauk,* Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 6-31 (rus.) ISSN 0301-1798 Van Praagh, E. & Dore, E. (2002) Short-term muscle power during growth and maturation.

Van Praagh, E. (2000) Development of anaerobic function during childhood and adolescence. *Pediatr Exerc Sci,* Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 150-173, ISSN 1543-2920 Vermorel, M., Lazzer, S., Bitar, A., Ribeyre, J., Montaurier, C., Fellmann, N., Coudert, J.,

Volkov, N.I. (2010) *Bioenergetics of sports activities*. Theory and Practice of Physical Culture

Wang, Z., Heymsfield, S.B., Ying, Zh., Pierson, R.N. Jr., Gallagher, D. & Gidwani, S. (2010)

White, C.R. & Seymour, R.S. (2005) Allometric scaling of mammalian metabolism. *The Journal of Experimental Biology,* Vol. 208, Pt. 9, p. 1611-1619, ISSN 0022-0949 Yazvikov, V.V., Sergeev, Yu.P., Nikitina, T.V. & Bashkirov, V.F. (1978) [Histochemical

Young, V.R., Yu, Y.M. & Fukagawa, N.K. (1991) Protein and energy interactions throughout

Zanconato, S., Buchthal, S., Barstow, T.J., Cooper, D.M. (1993) 31P-magnetic resonance

*Appl Physiol.,* Vol. 74, No. 5, pp. 2214-2218, ISSN 1522-1601

children. *J Am Coll Nutr, Vol.* 17, No. 4, pp. 333-336, ISSN 1541-1087

*Sports medicine*, Vol. 32, No. 11, pp. 701-728, ISSN 0112-1642

and Sports, Moscow, Russia, ISBN 978-5-93512-054-2

*Nauch. trudy Krasnoyarskogo med. in-ta,* No.2, pp. 275-277. (rus.)

*Metab Disord.* Vol. 25, No. 9, pp.1300-1308, ISSN 0307-0565

academy of education. Moscow, Russia (rus.)

ISBN 978-5-9770-0361-2 (rus.)

45, No. 2, pp. 129-142, ISSN 0926-5287

1520-6300

November 1978 (rus.)

373, pp. 5-24, ISSN 0300-8843

*deyatel'nosti. [Age and typological features of muscular activity energetics].* Thesis of Dissertation…Doc. Biol. Sci., Institute for Developmental Physiology Russian

NMR in prepubertal girls with a familial predisposition to obesity. *Int J Obes Relat* 

changes of the cerebral cortex and cerebellum in human postnatal ontogenesis]. In: *[The development of brain and cognitive development of children].* Ed. Farber, D.A., Bezrukih, M.M., pp. 9-75, Izd. Mos. Psih.-social. Inst.; Moscow-Voronezh, Russia

and derivation of a new equation for calculating basal metabolic rate in obese

Meyer, M. & Boirie, Y. (2005) Contributing factors and variability of energy expenditure in non-obese, obese, and post-obese adolescents. *Reprod Nutr Dev*. Vol.

A Cellular Level Approach to Predicting Resting Energy Expenditure: Evaluation of Applicability in Adolescents. *Am J Hum Biol.* Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 476–483, ISSN

characteristics of muscle fibers of different types in the performance of an untrained person intense muscular work] In: *[Proceedings of the XV All-Union scientific conference for Physiology and Biochemistry of Sport],* P.190, Moscow, USSR,

life. Metabolic basis and nutritional implications. *Acta Paediatr Scand Suppl*., Vol.

spectroscopy of leg muscle metabolism during exercise in children and adults. *J* 

Inorganic polyphosphates are long chains of a few to several hundred phosphate residues linked by phosphoanhydride bonds (Figure 1). Polyphosphates have been found in all cell types examined to date and have been demonstrated to play diverse roles depending on the cell type and circumstances (Kornberg et al., 1999; Kulaev & Kulakovskaya, 2000). The biological roles played by polyphosphates have been most extensively studied in prokaryotes and unicellular eukaryotes, where they have been shown to regulate many biochemical processes including the metabolism and transport of inorganic phosphate, cation sequestration and storage (Kornberg et al., 1999), and membrane channel formation (Reusch, 1989; Jones et al., 2003), and they have also been found to be involved in cell envelope formation and bacterial pathogenesis (Rashid et al., 2000; Kim et al., 2002), the regulation of gene and enzyme activities (McInerney et al., 2006), the activation of Lon proteases (Kuroda et al., 2001), and KcsA channel regulation (Negoda et al., 2009).

Fig. 1. Inorganic Polyphosphate

Conversely, polyphosphate functions have not been extensively investigated in higher eukaryotes; however, there is a good deal of interest in polyphosphates in mitochondria regarding two circumstances: polyphosphate as a macroenergetic compound with the same energy hydrolysis of the phosphoanhydride bond as an ATP and, according to the endosymbiotic theory, mitochondria originated from ancient prokaryotic cells (Clements et

Role of Inorganic Polyphosphate in the Energy Metabolism of Ticks 145

Fig. 2. Characterization of the total polyphosphate content during *R. microplus* embryogenesis. A) Total polyphosphate (▲) was extracted and quantified and free phosphate (■) was quantified in an egg homogenate on different days after oviposition. B) Total polyphosphate (▲) was extracted and quantified and exopolyphosphatase activity (●)

three independent experiments, in triplicate.

was analyzed in an egg homogenate on different days after oviposition. Activity is expressed as units per milligram of total protein. The results represent the mean ± SD of

Quantification of the major energy sources in the egg over the course of *R. microplus* embryogenesis suggests that lipids and carbohydrates are the main energy source used during early development of the embryo. The total lipid contents remained stable until the fifth day, dropped on the seventh day, and remained roughly unchanged until hatching (Figure 3A). The total sugar contents exhibited a similar pattern, although slightly delayed: the values remained stable until the seventh day, dropped on the ninth day and remained

al., 2009; Kulakovskaya et al., 2010), thus, it would be intriguing to discover whether or not mitochondria have preserved polyphosphate functions such as the regulation of energy metabolism and the participation in transport channel formation.
