A research team of the Structure of Interdisciplinary Research (ERI) BIOTECMED and the Department of Genetics, both from the Universitat de València, has just published, on the journal Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews, the first exhaustive and monographic review about Vip insecticidal proteins (Vegetative Insecticidal Protein), a protein family with an important toxicity facing different insects, and with a huge biotechnological interest for the future control of pests.
The insecticide proteins of Vip family (Vegetable Insecticidal Protein) are the less known of the insecticidal proteins produced by bacteria. However, their interest to the biotechnology is constantly growing because, if they were lost along the industrial process before, genetics engineering has got to include genes in plants which encode them, predicting success in crop protection.
Bacteria which infect insects produce insecticidal proteins which are accumulate in crystal inside the bacteria (proteins Cry), or are free to the crop as the bacteria size grows, like the case of the protein Vip family, especially toxic to beetles, plant louses and lepidoptera. Currently, the Vip3A protein is using in some cotton and corn crop Bt lines, which are resistant to pest attacks. The fact that Cry- the most used- and VIP have different target makes them complementary when the insecticidal spectrum is increased and to improve the resistance to pests.
A better knowledge of their functioning and the answer of the insects facing these will help to propel their use in a near future. That is why the recent review about insecticidal protein family Vip is important. This review has been published by a research team conducted by the full university professor for Genetics Juan Ferré, head of the BIOTECMED, a Structure of Interdisciplinary Research of the Universitat de València, in Biotechnology and Biomedicine.
Apart from Juan Ferré, are part of the team the researchers Maissa Chakroun, Núria Banyuls, Yolanda Belio and Baltasar Escriche, all of them members of the ERI BIOTECMED and of the Department of Genetics of the Universitat de València
Last update: 24 de may de 2016 07:59.
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