Synergistic effects of agonists and antagonists in insect venoms—a natural way of insecticidal action

Abstract

AbstractContrary to the typical killing action of most animal venoms, including social wasp venoms, the solitary wasp venoms seem to have been created to paralyse the prey. This suggests a specific action on parts of the nervous system. However, the solitary wasp venoms studied, contain many agonists and antagonists of synaptic transmission, and their paralysing action is very complicated. Besides a contribution of agonists to initiate and enhance the action of antagonists, one of the venoms contains two antagonists with different actions, and one of these antagonists enhances the effect of the other. The specific action of both toxins and their interaction will be discussed as an example of how nature enhances pesticide action through mixtures.