A Powerful Insecticidal Protein
While many think of bacteria simply as disease causing pathogens, some bacteria also have positive benefits for mankind. In agriculture, for example, bacterial proteins can be used to protect crops from pests.
Pore-forming proteins (PFPs) derived from the entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been used for almost thirty years to protect maize crops from its most devastating agricultural pests, known as western corn rootworm. However, new bacterial PFPs candidates are currently needed due to this pest’s increasing resistance towards th Bt proteins.
CSSB scientist Guendalina Marini, from the Topf group and former member of the Saibil group (Birkbeck, London) in collaboration with the company Corteva Agriscience, has recently demonstrated that a promising insecticidal PFP, Mpf2Ba1, isolated from bacterium Pseudomonas monteilii, shows potent control against corn rootworm through a different site of action than Bt proteins.
In a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, Marini and her collaborators provided detailed structural analyses of MpfBa1 which reveal transitions between the protein’s three main stages of pore formation. “These findings uncover detailed molecular mechanisms of bacterial pore assembly and advance both crop biotechnology and food security,” explains Marini.
Source:
Marini G, Poland B, Leininger C, Lukoyanova N, Spielbauer D, Barry JK, Altier D, Lum A, Scolaro E, Ortega CP, Yalpani N, Sandahl G, Mabry T, Klever J, Nowatzki T, Zhao JZ, Sethi A, Kassa A, Crane V, Lu AL, Nelson ME, Eswar N, Topf M, Saibil HR (2023) Structural journey of an insecticidal protein against western corn rootworm. Nat Commun. 14(1):4171. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39891-7.
