Vol. 6, Issue 1 (2018)
A short note on fusion proteins: An approach for insect-vector management
Author(s): Gurudevi V Navali, Guru PN, Soumya Shetter and Soumya Patil
Abstract: Management of the insect-vector is very much necessary, as they involved in the transmission of plant viruses which cause heavy loss in the cultivated crops by reducing both growth and yield. The effective management has been achieved through insecticides, but it has great environmental risk. Development of new strategies are gaining much importance over insecticide’s application. One such mechanism is the use of fusion proteins viz., spider toxins, plant lectins and virus coat-proteins, as they act on ion channels in nervous system, midgut epithelial cells and as carrier protein respectively. Spider venoms are complex mixtures of neurotoxic peptides, proteins and low molecular mass organic molecules. Their neurotoxic activity is due to the interaction of the venom components with cellular receptors, in particular ion channels. A large number of disulfide-rich (SS) insecticidal peptides have been isolated from spider venoms. Many of these have desirable properties for development as bioinsecticides, including high potency, rapid speed of kill, lack of vertebrate toxicity, low production costs, and activity against a wide range of crop pests and disease vectors. Moreover, they should be stable in the field owing to their SS-rich molecular architecture, and their degradation is unlikely to produce toxic residues. Their major disadvantage relative to chemical insecticides is their lack of contact activity. However, they have a major advantage over chemical insecticides in that transgenes encoding these peptides can be used to engineer insect-resistant plants and enhanced entomopathogens. In the case of GM plants, these transgenes are likely to be synergistic with Bt.
Pages: 1799-1803 | 665 Views 52 Downloads
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How to cite this article:
Gurudevi V Navali, Guru PN, Soumya Shetter, Soumya Patil. A short note on fusion proteins: An approach for insect-vector management. Int J Chem Stud 2018;6(1):1799-1803.
