EXPLOITING PHYTOCHEMICAL DIVERSITY TO CONTROL PESTS OF AGRICULTURE AND VECTORS OF HUMAN AND ANIMAL DISEASE

摘要

Ecological interactions between pests of agriculture and insect vectors of human and animal disease are mediated to a great extent through semiochemicals, signal molecules that convey information between organisms of the same or different species. Due to the cost and expertise required to exploit these interactions through laboratory-based chemical synthesis of the molecules involved, the prospect of using identified natural products is enhanced through biodiversity, either by the availability of advanced synthetic intermediates as plant products to complete the synthetic process, or by plants themselves generating these signals in situ.