Comparative physiology of insect renal function.

Abstract

Transport mechanisms and their control in various segments of insect excretory systems are reviewed and compared to those of vertebrate nephrons, exocrine glands, and hindguts. Formation of the primary urine in most insect Malpighian tubules (MT) is by isosmotic secretion, which is driven by an apical cation (K+) pump rather than by Na+-K+-ATPase. Unlike the glomerular filtrate of vertebrates, insect MT fluid is very different from the blood in composition, often having very high K+-to-Na+ ratios, and urine-to-plasma values much less than unity for most other solutes. The total surface area of insect MT is some 20 times that of vertebrate glomeruli per unit body weight. Secretion of MT fluid is regulated by neuropeptides over a wide range of rats, similar to glomerular filtration rate values for many vertebrate kidneys. Several secretory mechanisms for selected solutes are probably common to insect and vertebrate tubules. Unlike vertebrates, insects usually reabsorb most of the filtered water, ions, and metabolites in the rectum, which has a small surface area relative to the MT. The rectum is also where ionic and osmotic composition of the excreta is finally adjusted, under the control of neuropeptide hormones. In the rectum, insect excreta can become as hyperosmotic as mammalian urine, even though a countercurrent multiplier system is not present. Active transport of Cl- predominates in both locust rectum and the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop, but the characteristics of the anion transfer process are quite different in these two epithelia.