Popis chemické rozmanitosti polycyklických diterpenů tropických termitů

• Main Author: Horáček, Natan
• Other Authors: Bosáková, Zuzana
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: Czech
• Published: 2021
• Online Access: http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-448906

Ability to defend their nests belongs among the characteristics shared by different groups of social insects, which is often manifested by chemical defense using various secondary metabolites. Structural richness of defensive chemicals undoubtedly reaches its maximum in termites, whose soldiers are known to produce multiple hundred different compounds. These range from linear β- unsaturated aldehydes, through linear terpenoids and cyclic monoterpenes to polycyclic diterpenes with a wide array of oxygenated modifications. These polycyclic diterpenes are characteristic of the evolutionary modern and the most diversified termite subfamily Nasutitermitinae. Diverse species of Nasutitermitinae were extensively studied in the past with respect to the fascinating diversity of new polycyclic diterpenes, with roughly 70 structures being described so far. Yet, this lineage still remains an interesting target of investigations, especially thanks to several genera belonging to Subulitermes group, which were largely ignored by chemical and systematical studies due to their poorly known taxonomy and the small size of their bodies and nests. In my thesis, I focus on South-American representatives of the Subulitermes group, in an attempt to take advantage of modern technical solutions of chemical analytics in...