昆虫抗冻耐寒能力的测定与分析方法

Methodology of measuring and analyzing insect cold hardiness

昆虫抗冻耐寒能力因其理论意义和实践价值成为当前生物学和生态学的重要研究内容。尤其昆虫抗冻耐寒能力的测定与分析是昆虫低温生物学的热点问题。本文从昆虫生态,及生理生化层面阐述了昆虫抗冻策略和耐寒机制类型。进一步介绍了昆虫抗冻耐寒能力的测定与分析方法:一方面,以昆虫种群为对象,分析低温对种群存活的胁迫作用,如低温实验中种群的存活率,致死中温度或致死中时间,冷伤害上限温度,冷害低温总和,以及低温冷伤害的死亡速率等。另一方面,以昆虫个体为对象,测定个体为适应低温环境而采取响应机制,如昆虫个体过冷却点、含水量、能量物质、抗冻小分子物质和抗冻蛋白含量等。在未来,从微观上看随着低温生物学拓展到基因组、转录组、蛋白质组及代谢组层次的研究,从宏观上看随着越冬代昆虫种群数量动态及其迁飞转移行为规律与栖息地微环境气候和区域性景观格局特征等的关系研究,有利于更全面地和深入地了解昆虫类群的抗冻策略或耐寒机制,从而为更系统地建立昆虫抗冻耐寒能力的测定与分析方法体系提供可靠指标。

The theoretical significance and practical value of insect cold hardiness is increasingly becoming an important part of current biology and ecology studies and the methodology of measuring and analyzing insect cold hardiness is one of the key issues in insect cryobiology. In this article, we first summarize ecological, physiological and biochemical strategies and mechanisms of cold hardiness in insects, then introduce the methodology of measurment and analysis of insect cold hardiness. We describe how to analyse the stress effects of low temperature on the survival of insect populations, such as survival rate, semilethal temperature, duration of exposure to low temperature, the upper limit of the chili injury zone and sum of injurious temperature. We also describe how to measure low temperature adaptive mechanisms of individual insects, for example, supercooling point, moisture content, energy substance, low-molecular-weight polyols and sugars and antifreeze proteins. In the future, research on low temperature biology will extend to the genome, transcriptome, proteome and metabolic levels. From the macroscopic perspective, the relationships between quantitative dynamics, transfer behaviors and migration of overwintering populations and microclimate and regional landscape patterns are becoming increasingly clear. This will be conducive to a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the strategies and mechanisms of insect cold hardiness. This new information and knowledge coming from the genome, transcfiptome, proteome and metabolic levels to inform research on insect population ecology and landscape ecology will help establish a more systematic methodology for measuring and analyzing insect cold hardiness.