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Modulation of a lectin insecticidal activity by carbohydrates
Author(s) -
Triguéros V.,
Wang M.,
Père D.,
Paquereau L.,
Chavant L.,
Fournier D.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
archives of insect biochemistry and physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.576
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1520-6327
pISSN - 0739-4462
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6327(200012)45:4<175::aid-arch5>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - lectin , biology , sugar , carbohydrate , biochemistry , toxicity , insect , drosophila melanogaster , toxicology , botany , chemistry , organic chemistry , gene
Lectins from plants present an insecticidal activity most probably through their carbohydrate binding properties; as a consequence, their toxicity should vary with the presence of a competitive sugar in the ingested food. In order to test this hypothesis, we performed competition experiments between insecticidal activity and carbohydrate binding. For this purpose, we used a lectin from Lathyrus ochrus and the specific carbohydrate for this protein, glucose. In toxicological tests with Drosophila melanogaster , we observed a decrease of lectin toxicity when glucose was added to the larva‐rearing medium. This result suggests that the toxicity of the lectin is correlated to its ability to bind sugar in the insect digestive tract and stresses the importance of sugar composition of the nutriment used for toxicological testing of lectins or in genetically modified plants. Arch. Insect Biochem. Physiol. 45:175–179, 2000. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.