WEBINAR RECORDING: Molecular Targets of Insecticides and Herbicides – Are There Useful Overlaps?

Presented: March 8, 2023

Presenter: Stephen Duke, Principal Scientist, National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, Univ. Mississippi

Moderator: Daniel Swale, Associate Professor at the University of Florida, Department of Entomology and the Emerging Pathogens Institute

Abstract: New insecticide modes of action are needed for insecticide resistance management strategies. The number of molecular targets of commercial herbicides and insecticides are about 35 for both. Few commercial insecticide targets are found in plants, but ten targets of commercial herbicides are found in insects. For several of these commonly held targets, some compounds kill both plants and insects. For example, herbicidal inhibitors of p-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase are effective insecticides on blood-fed insects. The glutamine synthetase inhibiting herbicide glufosinate is insecticidal by the same mechanism of action, inhibition of glutamine synthetase. These and other examples of shared activities of commercial herbicides with insecticides through the same target site will be discussed. Compounds with novel herbicide targets shared by insects that are not commercialized as pesticides (such as statins) are also discussed. Compounds that are both herbicidal and insecticidal could be used for insect pests not associated with crops or with crops made resistant to the compounds.

Speaker Bio: Stephen O. Duke is Principal Scientist at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in Oxford.  He is also the Co-Editor-in-Chief for Pest Management Science, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Chemical Ecology, Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology, and Allelopathy Journal.  He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Advances in Weed Science. During a 45-year career in research experience, he has authored over 500 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored a book. He is best known for his work on herbicide modes of action and resistance and natural product roles in plant protection and chemical ecology.  His honors and awards over the last three years include the 2022 Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lecturer Award, and as a 2021 Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate, and a Staniforth Lecturer at Iowa State University.