Molecular Targets of Neurotoxic Insecticides in Apis mellifera

Abstract

The intensive use of insecticides, combined with other factors such as habitat loss, might explain worldwide decrease of insect populations documented in the past twenty years. However, due to the involvement of pest species in crop destruction and in vector-borne diseases, insecticides will probably continue to be required still for decades. The most commercially successful insecticides are neurotoxicants acting on ion channels of the central nervous system affecting thereby cellular excitability and synaptic transmission and causing insect paralysis and fatality. In this article, we provide an overview of the insecticides acting on voltage-gated sodium channels, GABA-gated chloride channels and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. We summarize the current knowledge on those ion channels from the honeybee Apis mellifera and discuss the possible mode of action of neurotoxic insecticides.