Discovery of insect anti-juvenile hormones in plants.?2U

Two simple chromenes with anti-JH activity have been isolated and identified from the bedding plant Ageratum houstoianum. By contact and fumigation these compounds induce precocious metamorphosis and sterilization in several hemipteran species of insects. Certain holometabolous species are sterilize...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 1976-08, Vol.193 (4253), p.542
Main Authors: Bowers, W S, Ohta, T, Cleere, J S, Marsella, P A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Female
Hibernation - drug effects
Insect Control - methods
Insecta
Insecticides - isolation & purification
Insecticides - pharmacology
Juvenile Hormones - antagonists & inhibitors
Juvenile Hormones - physiology
Metamorphosis, Biological - drug effects
Neurosecretory Systems - drug effects
Ovary - drug effects
Ovum - drug effects
Plants
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Summary:Two simple chromenes with anti-JH activity have been isolated and identified from the bedding plant Ageratum houstoianum. By contact and fumigation these compounds induce precocious metamorphosis and sterilization in several hemipteran species of insects. Certain holometabolous species are sterilized, forced into diapause, or both. Each of these biological actions is equivalent to removal of the corpora allata, which produce the JH's, and is reversible by treatment with exogenous JH. Thus, the action of these compounds is to stop the production or depress the titer of the JH's. To our knowledge, this is the first discovery of anti-JH, and we hope it will guide the way to the emergence of a fourth generation of safe and insect-specific pesticides.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.986685