Insect Hormones Index to this page

Prothoracicotropic Hormone (PTTH)

Ecdysone
Juvenile Hormone (JH)
JH affects gene expression

Because of their rigid exoskeleton,

insects can only grow by periodically
shedding their exoskeleton — called
molting.

Molting occurs repeatedly during

larval development. At the final molt,
the adult emerges.

In several insect orders, notably

ants and bees (Hymenoptera)

— example the honeybee;
flies (Diptera) — example
Drosophila melanogaster, and
butterflies and moths
(Lepidoptera) such as the
silkworm moth shown here,

the adult looks entirely different from the larva that preceded it. This marked transformation is
called complete metamorphosis.

Complete metamorphosis takes place during a seemingly-dormant stage called the pupa.

But, in fact, intense biological activity is going on within the pupal case. The cells of virtually all
the differentiated larval structures — muscles, salivary glands, gut, etc. — die by apoptosis. The
nutrients they release are then available for the further development of nests of cells — the
imaginal discs — that have been quietly developing within the larval body. Their differentiation
produces the structures of the adult — legs, wings, compound eyes, etc.

The sequence ending in the center panel (B) shows the larval, pupal, and adult stages during
normal development of the domestic silkworm moth, Bombyx mori.

Prothoracicotropic Hormone (PTTH)

Molting and pupation require the hormone, PTTH, secreted by a two pairs of cells in the brain of
the larva. If these cells are cut out of the brain of a full-grown larva, pupation does not occur. This
is not because of the trauma of surgery; if transplanted somewhere else in the caterpillar's body,
pupation occurs normally.

PTTH is a homodimer of two polypeptides of 109 amino acids.

PTTH does not drive pupation directly but, as its name suggests, acts on the prothoracic glands.

Ecdysone
There are two prothoracic glands located in the
thorax. Under the influence of PTTH, they secrete
the steroid hormone ecdysone.

Acting together, PTTH and ecdysone trigger every

molt: larva-to-larva as well as pupa-to-adult. What,
then, accounts for the dramatic changes of
metamorphosis?

Juvenile Hormone (JH)

Juvenile hormone is secreted by two tiny glands behind the
brain, the corpora allata.
Link to the molecular structure of a JH.

As long as there is enough JH, ecdysone promotes larva-to-

larva molts. With lower amounts of JH, ecdysone promotes
pupation. Complete absence of JH results in formation of the
adult.

So if the corpora allata are removed from an immature silkworm, it immediately spins a cocoon
and becomes a small pupa. A miniature adult eventually emerges (shown in panel (A) above).

Conversely, if the corpora allata of a young silkworm are place in the body of a fully-mature larva,
metamorphosis does not occur. The next molt produces an extra-large caterpillar (panel (C) above).

JH affects gene expression

Adult insects do not normally molt, but if extra amounts of PTTH are given to an adult Rhodnius
(the "kissing bug"), it is forced into an extra molt. The English insect physiologist V. B.
Wigglesworth showed that if juvenile hormone is first applied to the insect's exoskeleton, the
regions affected by it revert to larval type after this extra molt.

These images (courtesy of Dr. Wigglesworth) show his results.

 Left: application of a band of juvenile
hormone to the cuticle of an adult
Rhodnius results in the formation of
larval cuticle (speckled band) when
the insect is forced to undergo an
extra molt.
Right: Dr. Wigglesworth has printed
his initials with juvenile hormone.

What a beautiful example of the power of a

single molecule to unleash a different
pattern of gene expression! Presumably, JH
interacts with hormone receptors in the
cells to produce a new set of transcription factors.

Another Example

The swallowtail butterfly, Papilio xuthus, passes through 5 larval stages ("instars") growing larger
after each molt. The first four larval stages resemble bird droppings looking like brown fecal
matter with a whitish paste of uric acid (which is the nitrogenous waste of birds). The photograph
shows the 3rd (left), 4th (middle), and 5th (right) instars. See how after the fourth molt, the 5th
instar has quite a different appearance — being well camouflaged as it feeds on its host plant
(right).

R. Futahashi and H. Fujiwara reported in the 22 February 2008 of Science that the dramatic
transition from the 4th to the 5th instar is accompanied by a drop in the level of JH. When they
applied synthetic JH soon after the molt from the 3rd to the 4th instar, when the final molt
occurred, the 5th instar continued to resemble a bird dropping.

They also found that treatment with synthetic JH altered the expression of several genes associated
with the transition from the bird-dropping phenotype to the camouflaged phenotype.

(Photo courtesy of Dr. Fujiwara.)

Insect hormones and pest control

Knowledge of insect hormones has provided a number of opportunities to enlist them — or
molecules related to them — in the battle against insect pests. Link to a discussion.

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8 December 2016