Integration of insecticidal protein Vip3Aa1 into Beauveria bassiana enhances fungal virulence to Spodoptera litura larvae by cuticle and per Os infection.

ABSTRACT: The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana acts slowly on insect pests through cuticle infection. Vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vip3A) of Bacillus thuringiensis kill lepidopteran pests rapidly, via per os infection, but their use for pest control is restricted to integration into transgenic plants. A transgenic B. bassiana strain (BbV28) expressing Vip3Aa1 (a Vip3A toxin) was thus created to infect the larvae of the oriental leafworm moth Spodoptera litura through conidial ingestion and cuticle adhesion. Vip3Aa1 ( approximately 88 kDa) was highly expressed in the conidial cytoplasm of BbV28 and was detected as a digested form ( approximately 62 kDa) in the larval midgut 18 and 36 h after conidial ingestion. The median lethal concentration (LC(50)) of BbV28 against the second-instar

SUBMITTER: Qin Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2901720 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature