Costa rican international cooperative biodiversity group: using insects and other arthropods in biodiversity prospecting

Abstract

This paper describes the Costa Rican International Collaborative Biodiversity Group (ICBG), which was designed to introduce insects and other arthropods as a source of pharmaceutical compounds, and to generate knowledge and economic resources for biodiversity conservation. The National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) and the Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG), collected, inventoried and processed insect samples directly from the ACG in northwestern Costa Rica, and developed infrastructure to screen and characterize compounds against microbes and tropical diseases at INBio and the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Cornell University supplied its expertise in chemistry and administration. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) passed samples through part of its screening batteries in six major therapeutic areas. The field team at ACG collected samples, produced vouchers, identified, and obtained natural history information for 1800 insect samples from more than 20 orders of arthropods and 250 species of food plants. Lepidoptera was the most frequently collected (47%), followed by Coleoptera (15%) and Hymenoptera (12%). The adult instar was the most frequent insect stage processed. About 75% of the extracted samples were sent to different screening sites. Analysis of extracts at BMS yielded no ongoing compounds of interest. Several active samples in antibacterial and antimalaria screens at INBio and UCR have entered into bioassayguided fractionation and structure elucidation. While the chemical characterization of all active samples is still in process, most of the active compounds studied so far are related to unsaturated fatty acids. A very active dehydrochalcone was detected in a host plant after first being detected in a sample of caterpillars that had been feeding on that plant. Costa Rica ICBG information reinforced the National Biodiversity Inventory. During the course of the project, 16 Costa Rican researchers at both professional and paraprofessional levels received training in the field and in laboratories of the collaborators.