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Insecticidal Photorhabdus toxins as alternatives to Bt

ReferenceP11446
Principal Investigator / Supervisor Professor Richard Ffrench-Constant
Co-Investigators /
Co-Supervisors
Institution University of Bath
DepartmentBiology and Biochemistry
Funding typeResearch
Value (£) 209,209
StatusCompleted
TypeResearch Grant
Start date 01/10/1999
End date 01/10/2002
Duration36 months

Abstract

The long term goal of this project is to provide insecticidal protein toxins for use as alternatives to those derived from Bacillus thuringiensis or Bt. These would be either expressed in transgenic crops or used in conventional sprays or baits. In preliminary experiments we have cloned and sequenced four toxin complex genes from the bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens which each encode an insecticidal protein complex of high molecular weight (termed Photorhabdus toxins or Pht). Three years worth of research is therefore proposed to answer the following questions: (1) what is the effect of knocking out each of these toxin complex encoding loci individually or in combination? (2) what are the minimal effective toxin units suitable for plant expression or toxin production? (3) can we functionally express P. luminescens toxin or in other bacteria such as E. coli? If not, what is lacking? The appropriate secretion machinery and/or the normal proteolytic cleavage observed in P. luminescens broth.

Summary

unavailable
Committee Closed Committee - Plant & Microbial Sciences (PMS)
Research TopicsX – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research PriorityX – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative X - not in an Initiative
Funding SchemeX – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme
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