Disruption of insect diapause using agonists and an antagonist of diapause hormone

Abstract

The dormant state known as diapause is widely exploited by insects to circumvent winter and other adverse seasons. For an insect to survive, feed, and reproduce at the appropriate time of year requires fine coordination of the timing of entry into and exit from diapause. One of the hormones that regulates diapause in moths is the 24-aa neuropeptide, diapause hormone (DH). Among members of the Helicoverpa/Heliothis complex of agricultural pests, DH prompts the termination of pupal diapause. Based on the structure of DH, we designed several agonists that are much more active than DH in breaking diapause. One such agonist that we describe also prevents the entry into pupal diapause when administered to larvae that are environmentally programmed for diapause. In addition, we used the unique antagonist development strategy of incorporating a dihydroimidazole ("Jones") trans-Proline mimetic motif into one of our DH agonists, thereby converting the agonist into a DH antagonist that blocks the termination of diapause. These results suggest potential for using such agents or next-generation derivatives for derailing the success of overwintering in pest species.