Journal article
Novel insecticidal proteins from ferns resemble insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis
JZ Wei, A Lum, E Schepers, L Liu, RT Weston, BS McGinness, MJ Heckert, W Xie, A Kassa, D Bruck, G Rauscher, D Kapka-Kitzman, JP Mathis, JZ Zhao, A Sethi, J Barry, AL Lu, F Brugliera, EL Lee, NL Van DerWeerden Show all
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | NATL ACAD SCIENCES | Published : 2023
Abstract
Lepidopterans affect crop production worldwide. The use of transgenes encoding insecticidal proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) in crop plants is a well-established technology that enhances protection against lepidopteran larvae. Concern about widespread field-evolved resistance to Bt proteins has highlighted an urgent need for new insecticidal proteins with different modes or sites of action. We discovered a new family of insecticidal proteins from ferns. The prototype protein from Pteris species (Order Polypodiales) and variants from two other orders of ferns, Schizaeales and Ophioglossales, were effective against important lepidopteran pests of maize and soybean in diet-based assays..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
We thank Gusui Wu for his support on establishing this collaboration; Steve Sowinski, Jeff Sopa, Scott Diehn, Virginia Crane, Alfredo Madrigal, Brishette Lincoln- Cabatu, You You, Lisa Procyk, Rinku Sarangi, Samuel Qi, Benchie Ortegon, Jean Dyer, Corteva Agriscience bioassay team, sequenc- ing facility, greenhouse, and insectary staff for technical assistance; Abhiman Saraswathi and Zhenglin Hou for their reviewing the manuscript and their com- ments and suggestions; and Abhiman Saraswathi, Daniel Thorpe, and Brady North for their assistance in drafting some figures. M.J.M. was funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship (FT180100397) . Part of this study was conducted using the MX2 beamline at the Australian Synchrotron, which is part of ANSTO and made use of the ACRF detector. We thank the beamline staff for their enthusiastic and professional support.