THE BIOSYNTHESIS OF JUVENILE HORMONES AND ITS REGULATION : A VALID TARGET FOR CHEMICAL DISRUPTION ?

摘要

Insect juvenile hormones (JHs) control metamorphosis, reproduction and many other vital processes and have therefore served as prototypes for the synthesis of many bioactive analogs (juvenoids) which interfere with normal JH-regulated functions. Compounds which provoke rapid deficiencies in JH functions should be more versatile than juvenoids. The biosynthesis of juvenile hormone which occurs in small endocrine organs, the corpora allata, may serve as a new target for chemical disruption of JH-regulated functions. The feasibility of this approach was first demonstrated by the discovery of precocenes which are cytotoxic agents with a certain degree of specificity for corpus allatum cells in some species of hemimetabolous insects.