Drosophila X virus-like particles as delivery carriers for improved oral insecticidal efficacy of scorpion Androctonus australis peptide against the invasive fruit fly,Drosophila suzukii  

作　　者：Qi Xue Luc Swevers Clauvis Nji Tizi Taning 

机构地区：[1]Faculty of Bioscience Engineering,Department of Plants and Crops,Ghent University,Ghent,Belgium [2]Insect Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology,Institute of Biosciences and Applications,National Centre for Scientific Research"Demokritos",Athens,Greece

出　　处：《Insect Science》2024年第3期847-858,共12页昆虫科学（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the Special Research Fund of Ghent University and Research Foundation Flanders(FWO).CNTT is recipient of a senior postdoctoral fellowship from FWO(grant number 12V5722N).

摘　　要：Insect-specific neurotoxic peptides derived from the venoms of scorpions and spiders can cause acute paralysis and death when injected into insects,offering a promising insecticidal component for insect pest control.However,effective delivery systems are required to help neurotoxic peptides pass through the gut barrier into the hemolymph,where they can act.Here,we investigated the potential of a novel nanocarrier,Drosophila X virus-like particle(DXV-VLP),for delivering a neurotoxin from the scorpion Androctonus australis Hector(AaIT)against the invasive pest fruit fly,Drosophila suzuki.Our results show that the fusion proteins of DXV polyproteins with AalT peptide at their Ctermini could be sufficiently produced in Lepidoptera Hi5 cells in a soluble form using the recombinant baculovirus expression system,and could self-assemble into VLPs with similar particle morphology and size to authentic DXV virions.In addition,the AalT peptides displayed on DXV-VLPs retained their toxicity,as demonstrated in injection bioassays that resulted in severe mortality(72%)in adults after 72 h.When fed to adults,mild mortality was observed in the group treated with DXV-AalT(38%),while no mortality occurred in the group treated with AaIT peptide,thus indicating the significant role of DXV-VLPs in delivering AalT peptides.Overall,this proof-of-concept study demonstrates for the first time that VLPs can be exploited to enhance oral delivery of insect-specific neurotoxic peptides in the context of pest control.Moreover,it provides insights for further improvements and potentially the development of neurotoxin-based bioinsecticides and/or transgenic crops for insect pest control.

关 键 词：AalT Drosophila suzuki NANOCARRIER neurotoxic peptides pest control virus-like particle(VLP) 

分 类 号：Q96[生物学—昆虫学]