The striking color pattern in linden bugs develops during metamorphosis. Peptidic compounds that selectively disrupt adult development of the bug are super-potent agonists of the juvenile hormone receptor from the bug. (Tumova et al, 2022) 

Emerging mosquito (photo Alex Wild). Epoxidation of methyl farnesoate (MF) to JH III is unique to insects. Relative to MF, JH III is a more potent JH receptor agonist which enhances reproductive fitness. (Nouzova et al, 2021)

Advances in Drosophila genetics have enabled discoveries of actions of juvenile hormone (JH), a key lipophilic signaling molecule. The illustration (www.BioGraphix.cz) shows JH III and its receptor Met, first described in the fruit fly. 

Gin traps (the spiny structures, specific to pupae) mark precocious metamorphosis triggered by knockdown of the JH receptor Met in the beetle Tribolium castaneum. (Konopova & Jindra, 2007)

Midway through metamorphosis. The large, polyploid larval epidermal cells yield to proliferating histoblasts that form the adult abdomen of the fly Drosophila melanogaster. (Sekyrova et al, 2010)

Adult silk moth, Bombyx mori, carries a stable piggyBac transgenic construct (marked with eye-specific GFP), which enables heat-inducible gene expression. (Uhlirova et al, 2002)

Larva-to-pupa transformation requires the hormonally regulated transcription factor Broad-complex in all holometabolans including the beetle Tribolium castaneum. (Konopova & Jindra, 2008)

The hypodermal seam cells (green) of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans elongate and form contacts in a manner dependent on the nuclear receptor NHR-25. (Silhankova et al, 2009)

IBMB hosted a Special Issue on insect lipid metabolism co-edited by Marek Jindra and guest editors Laura Palanker Musselman and Umut Toprak (June 2021)

In collaboration with the Colorado State University, new tools for insect genetic manipulation were developed on the basis of the Sindbis virus. (Foy et al, 2004)