Cotton plants overexpressing the Bacillus thuringiensis Cry23Aa and Cry37Aa binary-like toxins exhibit high resistance to the cotton boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis).

The cotton boll weevil (CBW, Anthonomus grandis) stands as one of the most significant threats to cotton crops (Gossypium hirsutum). Despite substantial efforts, the development of a commercially viable transgenic cotton event for effective open-field control of CBW has remained elusive. This study describes a detailed characterization of the insecticidal toxins Cry23Aa and Cry37Aa against CBW.

Minc03328 effector gene downregulation severely affects Meloidogyne incognita parasitism in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana.

Minc03328 effector gene downregulation triggered by in planta RNAi strategy strongly reduced plant susceptibility to Meloidogyne incognita and suggests that Minc03328 gene is a promising target for the development of genetically engineered crops to improve plant tolerance to M. incognita. Meloidogyne incognita is the most economically important species of root-knot nematodes (RKN) and causes severe damage to crops worldwide.

RNAi-Mediated Suppression of Impairs Cuticle Tanning and Molting in the Cotton Boll Weevil ().

The cotton boll weevil, , is the most economically important pest of cotton in Brazil. Pest management programs focused on are based mostly on the use of chemical insecticides, which may cause serious ecological impacts. Furthermore, has developed resistance to some insecticides after their long-term use.

Dissecting protein domain variability in the core RNA interference machinery of five insect orders.

RNA interference (RNAi)-mediated gene silencing can be used to control specific insect pest populations. Unfortunately, the variable efficiency in the knockdown levels of target genes has narrowed the applicability of this technology to a few species. Here, we examine the current state of knowledge regarding the miRNA (micro RNA) and siRNA (small interfering RNA) pathways in insects and investigate the structural variability at key protein domains of the RNAi machinery.

Self-homodimerization of an actinoporin by disulfide bridging reveals implications for their structure and pore formation.

The Trp111 to Cys mutant of sticholysin I, an actinoporin from Stichodactyla helianthus sea anemone, forms a homodimer via a disulfide bridge. The purified dimer is 193 times less hemolytic than the monomer. Ultracentrifugation, dynamic light scattering and size-exclusion chromatography demonstrate that monomers and dimers are the only independent oligomeric states encountered.

Functional and structural characterization of a novel putative cysteine protease cell wall-modifying multi-domain enzyme selected from a microbial metagenome.

A current metagenomics focus is to interpret and transform collected genomic data into biological information. By combining structural, functional and genomic data we have assessed a novel bacterial protein selected from a carbohydrate-related activity screen in a microbial metagenomic library from Capra hircus (domestic goat) gut. This uncharacterized protein was predicted as a bacterial cell wall-modifying enzyme (CWME) and shown to contain four domains: an N-terminal, a cysteine protease, a peptidoglycan-binding and an SH3 bacterial domain.

Knock-down of heat-shock protein 90 and isocitrate lyase gene expression reduced root-knot nematode reproduction.

Crop losses caused by nematode infections are estimated to be valued at USD 157 billion per year. Meloidogyne incognita, a root-knot nematode (RKN), is considered to be one of the most important plant pathogens due to its worldwide distribution and the austere damage it can cause to a large variety of agronomically important crops. RNA interference (RNAi), a gene silencing process, has proven to be a valuable biotechnology alternative method for RKN control.

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 agriculture, particularly because of its specificity, which reflects directly on their lack of cytotoxicity to human health, non-target organisms and the environment.