Identification of novel juvenile-hormone signaling activators via high-throughput screening with a chemical library

Juvenile hormone (JH) is an insect-specific hormone that regulates molting and metamorphosis. Hence, JH signaling inhibitors (JHSIs) and activators (JHSAs) can be used as effective insect growth regulators (IGRs) for pest management. In our previous study, we established a high-throughput screening (HTS) system for exploration of novel JHSIs and JHSAs using a Bombyx mori cell line (BmN_JF&AR cells) and succeeded in identifying novel JHSIs from a chemical library. Here, we searched for novel JHSAs using this system. The four-step HTS yielded 10 compounds as candidate JHSAs; some of these compounds showed novel basic structures, whereas the others were composed of a 4-phenoxyphenoxymethyl skeleton, the basic structure of several existing JH analogs (pyriproxyfen and fenoxycarb). Topical application of seven compounds to B. mori larvae significantly prolonged the larval period, suggesting that the identified JHSAs may be promising IGRs targeting the JH signaling pathway.