As insects become resistant to current insecticides, researchers are looking for new options to protect crops and prevent disease. In research published in Nature Communications, a team led by Seok Yong-Lee, PhD, George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology, reveals insights about how insects sense their environment and how certain insecticides disrupt that process.
The researchers used advanced imaging techniques, including cryo-electron microscopy, to visualize two proteins found only in insects that help them sense movement, gravity, and sound. Together, these proteins, Nan and Lav, form an ion channel that lets charged particles pass into the cell.
Some modern insecticides, such as a newer compound called afidopyropen (AP), work by disrupting this sensory system and preventing insects from feeding, but the mechanism has remained unclear.
Lee’s team discovered how both natural molecules and insecticides attach to the channel, how the two protein partners assemble, and how calcium may help regulate their behavior.
Surprisingly they also found that one part of the channel can form a stable structure on its own when the insecticide AP is present.
These insights could guide the development of new, more effective insecticides that work in entirely new ways.
Other Duke authors: postdoctoral associates Justin G Fedor, PhD, Cheon-Gyu Park, PhD, and Yang Suo, PhD.
Funding: BASF Corporation and the National Institutes of Health.