Neuroendocrine regulation of corpus allatum activity in Manduca sexta: Sequential neurohormonal and nervous inhibition in the last-instar larva.

The inactivation of corpora allata (CA) in the last-instar larva of the tobacco hornworm Manduca sexta was studied using in vivo assay methods that test the capacity of the glands to induce an extra larval molt. Results indicate that the CA are inactivated by a two-step process. In the first step, a neurohormonal inhibition occurs by day 1 after ecdysis, resulting in a decrease in the ability of the glands to respond to allatotropin. The inhibitory hormone appears to be secreted by the medial neurosecretory cells in the brain and remains in the hemolymph only for a short period of <2 days. The second step of inactivation occurs by day 3; it is neurally mediated and essentially terminates juvenile hormone secretion. Neither the neurohormonal nor the neural inhibition is reversible under the conditions used in our larval assays. The timing of the two stages of inhibition coincides with the two periods of reduction in hemolymph juvenile hormone titer; this suggests that the regulation of corpus allatum activity plays an important role in reducing the juvenile hormone titer during the last larval instar-a prerequisite for the transformation of the larva into the pupa.