NOVEL AND SELECTIVE ACETYLCHOLINESTERASE INHIBITORS FOR INSECT CONTROL

Insect pests continue to consume large amounts of valuable food crops and to sicken or kill millions of human beings every year by spreading disease. Existing chemicals have issues with high mammalian toxicity, and effects on the environemnt. Resistance is also a problem for many existing insecticides, so new chemicals are urgently required. Finally, genetic engineering and biological control have not yet removed the need for chemical control agents and will not for the foreseeable future. The future payoff of this research is new knowledge of on an important enzyme in insects, as well as a new chemical insecticide with greatly improved selectivity, potency, ability to circumvent existing resistance mechanisms, and reduced environmental impact. Such a compound will change the condition of pest control. As an indicator of this project's possible impact from providing a new insecticide, the Asian citrus psyllid, which spreads citrus greening disease and is increasingly resistant to registered compounds, is infesting 15% of Florida citrus trees/year, and has cost the state of Florida $3.63 billion in lost revenues and 6,611 jobs from 2006-2011.