Natural product derived insecticides: Discovery and development of Spinetoram

Dow AgroSciences currently sells a portfolio of insecticides based on the spinosyns natural products which represent secondary metabolites produced by Saccharopolyspora spinosa in a fermentation-based process.  While spinosad already exhibits a broad insecticidal applicability on a variety of crop species and an excellent environmental profile, further improvement to the efficacy and spectrum of this family of compounds has been desirable.  The discovery, development, and commercial production of the improved, next generation insecticide spinetoram represents a still ongoing scientific journey employing a large variety of technologies from chemistry to genome-guided strain improvement.