Juvenile hormone delays the initiation of rectal sac distention by disrupting ecdysteroid action in the silkworm, Bombyx mori

Holometabolous insects develop without feeding and excreting during the pupal period and thus require repository organs for metabolic waste, or meconium. The rectal sac is an organ for storing meconium during pupal-adult development of holometabolous insects. Although the rectal sac has an essential function, hormonal and developmental regulation of waste-accumulation and the consequences of rectal sac distention are still unknown. In the silkworm, Bombyx mori, the rectal sac distends with meconium in the middle pupal period under the regulation of ecdysteroid. Here, we show that juvenile hormone analog (JHA) delayed rectal sac distention and disturbed adult emergence. Distention was not restored completely by an injection of 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E) into pupae applied with JHA, suggesting that JHA suppresses 20E action and delays the timing of ecdysteroid elevation. Thus the “status quo” action of JHA may function in two different ways during pupal-adult development.