Chitin synthesis inhibitors: old molecules and new developments

Abstract

Chitin is the most abundant natural aminopolysaccharide and serves as a structural component of extracellular matrices. It is found in fungal septa, spores, and cell walls, and in arthropod cuticles and peritrophic matrices, squid pens, mollusk shells, nematode egg shells, and some protozoan cyst walls. As prokaryotes, plants and vertebrates including humans do not produce chitin, its synthesis is considered as an attractive target site for fungicides, insecticides, and acaricides. Although no chitin synthesis inhibitor has been developed into a therapeutic drug to treat fungal infections in humans, a larger number of compounds have been successfully launched worldwide to combat arthropod pests in agriculture and forestry. This review summarizes the latest advances on the mode of action of chitin synthesis inhibitors with a special focus on those molecules that act on a postcatalytic step of chitin synthesis.

Resistance mutation conserved between insects and mites unravels the benzoylurea insecticide mode of action on chitin biosynthesis

“…BPUs (10), such as the major mosquito larvicide diflubenzuron and the agriculturally widely used insecticides triflumuron and lufenuron, represent a group of compounds (group 15 with regard to the IRAC grouping system; see also Fig. S1) that inhibit chitin biosynthesis by a unique yet elusive mechanism of action independent of the catalytic reaction of CHS itself (6,10,11). Although the sulfonylurea receptor (SUR) has been suggested as the Significance An old enigma in insect toxicology, the mode of action (MoA) of selective chitin biosynthesis inhibitors in arthropods, is resolved.…”

ChtVis-Tomato, a genetic reporter for in vivo visualization of chitin deposition in Drosophila

“…Chitin usually functions as a structural component of cell walls or extracellular matrix. In fungi it is often deposited at sites of rapid growth (Molano et al, 1980;Sloat and Pringle, 1978;Teparićand Mrša, 2013) and in insects it is deposited at the apical surface of epithelial cells as part of the cuticular exoskeleton (Merzendorfer, 2013;Merzendorfer and Zimoch, 2003;Moussian, 2013).…”

Performance of reproductive system of Dichelops melacanthus (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) subjected to buprofezin and pyriproxyfen: morphological analysis of ovarioles and testes

“…In Stomoxys calcitrans L. (Diptera: Muscidae), buprofezin significantly affected the development during immaturity and pupation at concentrations of 5 ppm, being most evident at larger dosages (LIU et al, 2012). Hemolymph extravasation was reported by Merzendorfer (2013) to be a symptom of chitin biosynthesis inhibitor agents.…”