丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂Serpin1对东亚飞蝗酶学免疫的影响

Serpins是东亚飞蝗Locusta migratoria manilensis体内具有免疫调节功能的一类丝氨酸蛋白酶抑制剂。前期研究发现Serpin1能够降低绿僵菌Metarhizium对蝗虫的杀虫效果,本研究旨在从酶学角度明确Serpin1蛋白抑制绿僵菌毒力的原因,进一步揭示Serpins的功能与作用机制。本实验采用饵剂饲喂的方法进一步明确Serpin1蛋白对绿僵菌侵染东亚飞蝗的抑制效果;测定绿僵菌侵染东亚飞蝗过程中,添加Serpin1蛋白对东亚飞蝗体内保护酶(超氧化物歧化酶SOD、过氧化物酶POD、酚氧化酶PO)、解毒酶(多功能氧化酶MFO、谷胱甘肽转移酶GSTs、乙酰胆碱酯酶AchE)共6种酶的影响,以明确Serpin1对东亚飞蝗酶学免疫的调节作用。结果表明,Serpin1能够显著降低绿僵菌对蝗虫的杀虫效果;将Serpin1与绿僵菌混合后处理东亚飞蝗,12 d后其死亡率为63.5%,显著低于绿僵菌单独处理(死亡率为80.6%)。酶活测定结果显示,将绿僵菌IMI330189与Serpin1蛋白混合处理后,与绿僵菌处理组相比,东亚飞蝗体内保护酶SOD和PO的活力总体表现为上调,而POD的活力呈现降低的趋势;解毒酶MFO、GSTs的活性呈现升高趋势,AChE的活力呈现先升高后降低的趋势。上述结果表明,Serpin1蛋白能够增强东亚飞蝗体内解毒酶和保护酶的活性,提高东亚飞蝗的酶学免疫,增强对绿僵菌侵染的抵御能力,从而降低东亚飞蝗的死亡率。本研究为进一步揭示Serpins的功能提供了参考。

A Fragment of Cadherin-Like Protein Enhances Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1B and Cry1C Toxicity to Spodoptera exigua(Lepidoptera:Noctuidae)

Cry toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis（Bt） are effective biological insecticides against certain insect species.In this study,bioassay results indicated that Cry1B and Cry1C were toxic to Spodoptera exigua.We also identified a cadherin-like gene in S.exigua that could enhance the toxicity of Cry1B and Cry1C.The cadherin-like gene identified from the larvae midgut tissue was cloned by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction（RT-PCR） and rapid amplification of cDNA ends（RACE）.The full-length cDNA of the gene consisted of 5 220 bp encoding 1 740 amino acid with a predicted molecular mass of 196 kD.BLAST search analysis showed that the predicted amino acid sequence had a high sequence identity to the published sequences of cadherin-like proteins from other Lepidoptera insects.Spatial expression of the cadherin-like gene detected by qRT-PCR analysis revealed that the cadherin-like gene was mainly present in the gut of 4th instar larvae and during different life stages.The results suggested that the commercial development of this synergist has the potential to enhance Cry1B and Cry1C toxicity against Lepidoptera insects.

Effects of Glutamate and Na^+ on the Development and Enzyme Activity of the Oriental Migratory Locust,Locusta migratoria manilensis(Meyen) in Successive Generations

Rapid and mass rearing ofLocusta migratoria manilensis is an urgent need to meet the increasing demand for food of people. In this study, the effects of four artificial feeds on the development, reproduction and the activities of detoxification and protective enzymes of L. migratoria manilensis in three successive generations were investigated. The results showed that sucrose and monosodium glutamate （MSG） significantly increased the net reproductive rate （R0） and the intrinsic growth rate （rm） ofL. migratoria manilensis, but sodium chloride （0.17%） suppressed this increase. Furthermore, the artificial feed with sucrose and monosodium glutamate increased the activities of esterase （EST）, acetylcholinesterase （ACHE）, glutathione-S- transferase （GST）, multi-function oxidase （MFO）, phenol oxidase （PO）, catalase （CAT） and peroxidase （POD）, but inhibited the activity of superoxide dismutase （SOD）. However, sodium chloride （0.17%） increased the activities of EST, ACHE, CAT and SOD, and inhibited the activities of MFO, GST, PO and POD. Correlation analysis found that the increasing of PO activity and the decreasing of SOD activities were significantly related with the increasing of the intrinsic growth rate （rm）. The above results indicated that sucrose and monosodium glutamate could promote the development and reproduction of L. migratoria manilensis, but Na＋ inhibit such promotion with the concentration above 0.2%. The activities of PO and SOD can be used as biochemical standard to assess the effect of artificial feed.

The Binding Characterization of Cry Insecticidal Proteins to the Brush Border Membrane Vesicles of Helicoverpa armigera, Spodoptera exigua, Spodoptera litura and Agrotis ipsilon

Cry toxins produced by Bacillus thuringiensis （Bt） are effective biological insecticides against certain insect species. However, there are potential risks of the evolved resistance of insects to Cry toxin owing to decreased binding of toxins to target sites in the brush border membranes of the larva midgut. The Cry toxins with different binding sites in the larval midgut have been considered to be a good combination to deploy in delaying resistance evolution. Bioassay results demonstrated that the toxicity of different Cry toxins ranked differently for each species. The toxicity ranking was CrylAc〉CrylAb〉Cry2Ab for Helicoverpa armigera, CrylB〉CrylC〉Cry2Ab for Spodoptera exigua, and Cry2Ab〉CrylB〉 CrylC for S. litura. Only Cry2Ab was toxic to Agrotis ipsilon. Binding experiments were performed with ^125I-CrylAb, ^125I-CrylAc, ^125I-CrylB, ^125I-CrylC, ^125I-Cry2Ab and the brush border membranes vesicles （BBMV） from H. armigera, S. exigua, S. litura and A. ipsilon. The binding of CrylAb and CrylAc was shown to be saturable by incubating with increasing concentrations of H. armigera BBMV （Kd=（45.00＋2.01） nmol L-1 and （12.80＋0.18） nmol L^-1, respectively; Bmax=（54.95±l.79） ng and （55.44±0.91） ng, separately）. The binding of CrylB was shown to be saturable by incubating with increasing concentrations ofS. exigua BBMV （Kd=（23.26±1.66） nmol L^-1; Bmax=（65.37±1.87） ng）. The binding of ^125I-Cry toxins was shown to be non-saturable by incubating with increasing concentrations of S. litura and A. ipsilon BBMV. In contrast, CrylB and CrylC showed some combination with the BBMV orS. litura, and a certain amount of Cry2Ab could bind to the BBMV ofA. ipsilon. These observations suggest that a future strategy could be devised for the focused combination of specific cry genes in transgenic crops to control target pests, widen the spectrum of insecticide effectiveness and postpone insect resistance evolution.

Characterization and functional analysis of β-1,3-galactosyltransferase involved in Cry1Ac resistance from Helicoverpa armigera(Hübner)

Carbohydrate chains are the principal antigens by which Bacillus thuringiensis（Bt） identify receptor proteins. The interaction between the antigen and Bt causes a pore in the membrane of midgut epithelial cells of insects. Receptor proteins, such as aminopeptidase N and alkaline phosphatase, are glycoproteins. Cadherin is another cell surface receptor protein which has potential glycosylation sites. Glycosyltransferase is very important for the synthesis and modification of receptor proteins. It can indirectly influence the function of Bt. The 1 950 bp full-length c DNA encoding β-1,3-galactosyltransferase was cloned from the the midgut of Helicoverpa armigera by degenerative PCR combined with RACE techniques（GAL-Harm, Gen Bank accession no.： GQ904195.1） with two potential N-glycosylation sites（^157NNTI^160 and ^272NKTL^275）. Protein sequence alignments revealed that H. armigera β-1,3-galactosyltransferase shared high identity with β-1,3-galactosyltransferase in other insect species. The expression level of the β-1,3-galactosyltransferase gene in Cry1Ac-resistant H. armigera larvae was 9.2-fold higher than that in susceptible strain. The function of β-1,3-galactosyltransferase was investigated using RNAi technique. The result showed Cry1 Ac enhanced the toxicity against the si RNA-treated larvae compared with non-si RNA-treated ones, which indicated β-1,3-galactosyltransferase played an important role for the insecticidal toxicity of Cry1 Ac in H. armigera.