Iron-Sulfur Clusters: A Core Hub in Insect Energy, Reproduction, and Molting

Iron-sulfur clusters are a class of functionally diverse protein cofactors. In recent years, significant progress has been made in insect research on iron-sulfur clusters, revealing that they serve as a core molecular hub that integrate multiple physiological processes. This review systematically summarizes the structural characteristics and biosynthetic pathways of iron-sulfur clusters, with an emphasis on insect-specific features in the stability of iron-sulfur cluster assembly proteins, cluster transfer mechanisms, and functional differentiation of ferredoxins. On this basis, it further elucidates the central roles of insect iron-sulfur clusters in energy homeostasis, reproductive capacity, ecdysis, detoxification metabolism, and magnetoreception, and revealed the potential regulatory mechanisms of iron-sulfur proteins in the aforementioned physiological processes in insects, including the electron transport chain, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, the AMPK/TOR signaling axis, cell cycle regulation, and P450 enzyme activity. These findings provide important theoretical foundations and potential molecular targets for the development of environmentally friendly pest control strategies with low resistance risk.