Contents - Faperta

18
Molecular Techniques for Developing New
Insecticide Molecules and Monitoring Insect
Resistance to Insecticides
Introduction
Crop protection is still dominated by conventional chemical control, and this approach will
continue to be important in crop protection in the future. Therefore, there will be a continued
need for new insecticides either to be used alone or in combination with insect-resistant
transgenic crops for integrated pest management. Overuse of insecticides has led to development
of resistance to insecticides in many insect species. As a result, there are concerns
that under outbreak situations, it may be diffi cult to control certain pests or vectors of
human and plant diseases that have developed high levels of resistance to the commonly
used insecticides. Therefore, there is a continuing need to monitor insect resistance to
insecticides and develop and identify insecticide molecules with novel modes of action. It
is in this context that molecular techniques can be employed to detect different receptor
sites, and for screening of the molecules for receptor specifi city and mode of action.
Development of New Insecticide Molecules
Traditionally, the discovery of new agrochemicals has used in vivo screens to identify
new compounds, and has been very successful. Functional genomics offers the opportunity
to acquire in-depth knowledge of the genetic makeup and gene function of insect pests that
may lead to the discovery of new processes that could be the targets for novel chemistry.
Advances in pest control are now being aided through rapid synthesis of novel compounds
using combinational chemistry, genomics, proteomics, and molecular modeling.