The bioconversion of agricultural crop straw using black soldier fly larvae (BSFL, Hermetia illucens) offers a promising strategy for recycling residual nutrients into high-value insect biomass. However, rearing BSFL on crop straw alone typically results in delayed development and poor substrate conversion efficiency. Here, we compared BSFL performance across three common agricultural residues-corn stover, rice straw, and wheat straw-and found that larvae reared on corn stover achieved significantly greater body weight and crude fat content. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (UPLC/ESI-MS) revealed higher levels of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) in corn stover than in the other substrates. Supplementation experiments confirmed that BCAAs significantly enhanced larval biomass and lipid accumulation. Gas chromatography (GC) analysis showed marked increases in lauric and oleic acid content in BSFL fed BCAA-supplemented rice straw. RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated knockdown of key BCAA catabolic genes including branched-chain amino acid aminotransferase (BCAT) and branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase (BCKDH) impaired BCAA catabolism, resulting in reduced growth and fat storage. These findings demonstrate that enrichment of BCAAs in corn stover are efficiently assimilated by BSFL under low-nitrogen conditions to promote lipid accumulation, which offering a practical strategy to enhance bioconversion efficiency in waste valorization and insect-based protein production.
Chen et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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