In Silico Studies on Juvenile Hormone Epoxide Hydrolase in Spilarctia Obliqua to Elucidate JH Analogs as Green Biopesticides

The battle between human and insect pests always faces unexpected problems. Identification of novel strategies from the Insect Endocrine system seems to be more essential for their biocontrol. One such approach is targeting Juvenile Hormone pathway. The Juvenile hormone epoxide hydrolase protein has an immense potential to apply as an insecticide due to its irreversible degradation of insect’s JH, disrupting all the major physiological processes of the insect pests leading to the death of the pests. The present paper includes the in silico analysis of JHEH protein in Spilarctia obliqua, which is a serious agricultural pest on many food crops. The three-dimensional structure of JHEH protein is modeled based on Homology using MOE considering Bombyx mori JHEH as a template. The obtained model is minimized and evaluated. The inferred SoJHEH protein structure showed the conserved catalytic triad and oxyanion hole domains, indicating the well-preserved catalytic mechanism of epoxide hydration. Rigid receptor docking was performed with selected JH analogs to analyze the catalytic activity of JHEH. The docked complex showed stability with the Juvenile hormone structure with the lowest energy during 50 ns molecular dynamic simulations run. Thus, the proposed study represents a preface step to develop a biocontrol strategy where JH analogs can be used as third-generation pesticides.