Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram-positive spore-forming soil bacterium that is distributed worldwide. Originally recognized as a pathogen of the silkworm, several strains were found on epizootic events in insect pests. In the 1960s, Bt began to be successfully used to control insect pests in ag...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI
2014
|
| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147589/ |
| id |
pubmed-4147589 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
pubmed-41475892014-08-28 Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins Lucena, Wagner A. Pelegrini, Patrícia B. Martins-de-Sa, Diogo Fonseca, Fernando C. A. Gomes, Jose E. de Macedo, Leonardo L. P. da Silva, Maria Cristina M. Oliveira, Raquel S. Grossi-de-Sa, Maria F. Review Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram-positive spore-forming soil bacterium that is distributed worldwide. Originally recognized as a pathogen of the silkworm, several strains were found on epizootic events in insect pests. In the 1960s, Bt began to be successfully used to control insect pests in agriculture, particularly because of its specificity, which reflects directly on their lack of cytotoxicity to human health, non-target organisms and the environment. Since the introduction of transgenic plants expressing Bt genes in the mid-1980s, numerous methodologies have been used to search for and improve toxins derived from native Bt strains. These improvements directly influence the increase in productivity and the decreased use of chemical insecticides on Bt-crops. Recently, DNA shuffling and in silico evaluations are emerging as promising tools for the development and exploration of mutant Bt toxins with enhanced activity against target insect pests. In this report, we describe natural and in vitro evolution of Cry toxins, as well as their relevance in the mechanism of action for insect control. Moreover, the use of DNA shuffling to improve two Bt toxins will be discussed together with in silico analyses of the generated mutations to evaluate their potential effect on protein structure and cytotoxicity. MDPI 2014-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4147589/ /pubmed/25123558 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins6082393 Text en © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Lucena, Wagner A. Pelegrini, Patrícia B. Martins-de-Sa, Diogo Fonseca, Fernando C. A. Gomes, Jose E. de Macedo, Leonardo L. P. da Silva, Maria Cristina M. Oliveira, Raquel S. Grossi-de-Sa, Maria F. |
| spellingShingle |
Lucena, Wagner A. Pelegrini, Patrícia B. Martins-de-Sa, Diogo Fonseca, Fernando C. A. Gomes, Jose E. de Macedo, Leonardo L. P. da Silva, Maria Cristina M. Oliveira, Raquel S. Grossi-de-Sa, Maria F. Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| author_facet |
Lucena, Wagner A. Pelegrini, Patrícia B. Martins-de-Sa, Diogo Fonseca, Fernando C. A. Gomes, Jose E. de Macedo, Leonardo L. P. da Silva, Maria Cristina M. Oliveira, Raquel S. Grossi-de-Sa, Maria F. |
| author_sort |
Lucena, Wagner A. |
| title |
Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| title_short |
Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| title_full |
Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| title_fullStr |
Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Molecular Approaches to Improve the Insecticidal Activity of Bacillus thuringiensis Cry Toxins |
| title_sort |
molecular approaches to improve the insecticidal activity of bacillus thuringiensis cry toxins |
| description |
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a gram-positive spore-forming soil bacterium that is distributed worldwide. Originally recognized as a pathogen of the silkworm, several strains were found on epizootic events in insect pests. In the 1960s, Bt began to be successfully used to control insect pests in agriculture, particularly because of its specificity, which reflects directly on their lack of cytotoxicity to human health, non-target organisms and the environment. Since the introduction of transgenic plants expressing Bt genes in the mid-1980s, numerous methodologies have been used to search for and improve toxins derived from native Bt strains. These improvements directly influence the increase in productivity and the decreased use of chemical insecticides on Bt-crops. Recently, DNA shuffling and in silico evaluations are emerging as promising tools for the development and exploration of mutant Bt toxins with enhanced activity against target insect pests. In this report, we describe natural and in vitro evolution of Cry toxins, as well as their relevance in the mechanism of action for insect control. Moreover, the use of DNA shuffling to improve two Bt toxins will be discussed together with in silico analyses of the generated mutations to evaluate their potential effect on protein structure and cytotoxicity. |
| publisher |
MDPI |
| publishDate |
2014 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4147589/ |
| _version_ |
1613128695087628288 |