title: Insecticidal toxins from the bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens.
abstract: Transgenic plants expressing Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxins are currently being deployed for insect control. In response to concerns about Bt resistance, we investigated a toxin secreted by a different bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens, which lives in the gut of entomophagous nematodes. In insects infected by the nematode, the bacteria are released into the insect hemocoel; the insect dies and the nematodes and bacteria replicate in the cadaver. The toxin consists of a series of four native complexes encoded by toxin complex loci tca, tcb, tcc, and tcd. Both tca and tcd encode complexes with high oral toxicity to Manduca sexta and therefore they represent potential alternatives to Bt for transgenic deployment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bowen
authors.forename: T A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Rocheleau
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blackburn
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Andreev
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Golubeva
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhartia
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: ffrench-Constant
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000633:toxicity*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000633:toxicity*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D017353:Gene Deletion; D007306:Insecticides; D018402:Manduca; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010572:Pest Control, Biological; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004731:Endotoxins; D007306:Insecticides