Great effort is put into seeking a new and effective strategies to control insect pests. One of them is to combine natural products with chemical insecticides to increase their effectiveness. In the study presented, menthol which is an essential oil component was evaluated on its ability to increase the efficiency of bendiocarb, carbamate insecticide. A multi-approach study was conducted using biochemical method (to measure acetylcholinesterase enzyme activity), electrophysiological technique (microelectrode recordings in DUM neurons in situ), and confocal microscopy (for calcium imaging). In the electrophysiological experiments, menthol caused hyperpolarization, which was blocked by an octopamine receptor antagonist (phentolamine) and an inhibitor of protein kinase A (H-89). It also raised the intracellular calcium level. The effect of bendiocarb was potentiated by menthol and this phenomenon was abolished by phentolamine and H-89 but not by protein kinase C inhibitor (bisindolylmaleimide IX). The results indicate that menthol increases carbamate insecticide efficiency by acting on octopamine receptors and triggering protein kinase A phosphorylation pathway.
Keywords: PKA; PKC; bendiocarb; carbamates; essential oils; menthol; octopamine receptor; protein kinase A; protein kinase C.