Crustacean Hormones As Indicators Of Normal Development, Reproduction, And Stress     Hans Laufer   Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT     Healthy lobsters require a properly functional endocrine system in order to survive.  A compromised  endocrine system is a sensitive indicator of impending  problems affecting the survival, the development   through critical stages such as metamorphosis, growth  to legal size), and ultimately through maturation to  reproduction. A healthy endocrine system is essential for propagation and maintenance of the species.    Adverse environmental factors (both of human origin and of nature), such as were present in western Long Island Sound (WLIS) in late 1999, are known to interfere with appropriate functioning of the major endocrine factors affecting the health and survival of lobsters.  Of particular relevance are stresses, such as unusually high temperatures, and the use of the insect growth regulator (IGR) methoprene, a compound being used to control West Nile Virus by targeting larval mosquitoes. Methoprene is known to interfere with the proper metamorphosis of mosquito larvae into pupae, preventing them from becoming adults because methoprene is an analog of their own juvenile hormone (JHIII).     We are investigating the tolerance and resistance of lobsters to important physiological stresses.  The effects of prolonged elevated temperature and the endocrine disruptor, methoprene, are being used to examine their effects on the ability of lobsters to sustain specific protein synthesis and on their ability to maintain a functionally integrated endocrine system, at critical developmental stages.  Of major importance of our research are the effects of stresses on methyl farnesoate (MF), a growth hormone which is involved in differentiation and reproduction, ecdysone, the molting hormone, and hormones from the central nervous system, crustacean hyperglycemic hormones (CHHs), molt inhibiting hormones (MIH), and gonad inhibiting hormone (GIH).