Development of entomotoxic molecules as control agents: illustration of some protein potential uses and limits of lectins (Review)

Abstract

Worldwide use of pesticide has dramatically increased during the last two decades, which are known to cause a lot of problems to both environment and human health. Due to the harmful effects of insecticide on environment, human health, non target organism, water pollution and increasing insect resistance, recent efforts have been made to reduce broad spectrum of toxicant added to the environment. It is necessary to balance agricultural needs with environmental and health issues when using insecticides. Currently, the use of entomotoxic proteins has been increased because of the growing need to obtain better food quality and to protect the environment. Bt toxins derived from bacteria, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) the main commercial genetically modified organism (GMO), or entomotoxic product were successfully used against a range of insect orders such as Lepidoptera, Coleoptera and Diptera. In recent years, several investigations were focused on other entomotoxic potential, including products based on some defense proteins present in plants. Among them some classes of proteins such as digestive enzyme inhibitors and lectins showed greater potential for exploitation in transgenic-based pest control strategies. Currently, some lectins from plant and fungal origin were successfully used against a wide range of important insect pests.

Keywords

• Protein
• lectins
• plant-insect interactions
• ribosome-inactivating proteins
• proteases inhibitors
• amylase inhibitors