A new generation of chemical pesticides will disrupt the life cycle of insects, preventing them from reaching their normal adult form.
Because the pesticides attack insect juvenile hormone, which has no equivalent in higher animals, they will be harmless to vertebrate animals and humans, said Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.
The research team from CSIRO and the United States has cloned two proteins that regulate the level of insect juvenile hormone.
“The level of this hormone is crucial in development where it controls the process of metamorphosis,” said Tony Zera of the University of Nebraska.
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“In insects such as locusts, juvenile hormone is also one of the factors that controls the switch between their sedentary stage and their migratory stage.”
Insects are moving targets during the flight stage of their life cycle, and much harder to control.
“The opportunity to develop a potentially valuable class of chemical insecticide has been created by combining the skills of CSIRO Entomology in cloning technologies with our work on insect development and biochemistry in the U.S.,” Zera said.
“Two key proteins called juvenile hormone esterase (JHE) and juvenile hormone binding protein (JHBP) control the level of juvenile hormone. This in turn regulates the passage of juvenile insects through their various moults to become adults.
“In many insects which have different adult forms specialized for different functions, the hormone also determines which of these adult forms they become,” he said.
“Alterations to JHE and JHBP disrupt development and in the case of insects like crickets and grasshoppers can prevent commencement of the migratory phase.
“The important step from the point of view of commercial application has been the cloning of JHE and JHBP in CSIRO Entomology’s biotechnology program.
“This means that we can now apply for patents for the use of these genes in the search for new, safer chemical insecticides.”
