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Momordica charantia trypsin inhibitor II inhibits growth and development of Helicoverpa armigera
Author(s) -
Telang Manasi Alok,
Pyati Prashant,
Sainani Mohini,
Gupta Vidya Shrikant,
Giri Ashok Prabhakar
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
insect science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.991
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1744-7917
pISSN - 1672-9609
DOI - 10.1111/j.1744-7917.2009.01269.x
Subject(s) - helicoverpa armigera , momordica , biology , bitter gourd , trypsin , midgut , biochemistry , recombinant dna , trypsin inhibitor , serine proteinase inhibitors , chymotrypsin , botany , larva , traditional medicine , enzyme , serine protease , protease , gene , medicine
Bitter gourd ( Momordica charantia L.) seeds contain several squash‐type serine proteinase inhibitors (PIs), which inhibit the digestive proteinases of the polyphagous insect pest Helicoverpa armigera . In the present work isolation of a DNA sequence encoding the mature peptide of a trypsin inhibitor McTI‐II, its cloning and expression as a recombinant protein using Pichia pastoris have been reported. Recombinant McTI‐II inhibited bovine trypsin at 1: 1 molar ratio, as expected, but did not inhibit chymotrypsin or elastase. McTI‐II also strongly inhibited trypsin‐like proteinases (81% inhibition) as well as the total proteolytic activity of digestive proteinases (70% inhibition) from the midgut of H. armigera larvae. The insect larvae fed with McTI‐II‐incorporated artificial diet suffered over 70% reduction in the average larval weight after 12 days of feeding. Moreover, ingestion of McTI‐II resulted in 23% mortality in the larval population. The strong antimetabolic activity of McTI‐II toward H. armigera indicates its probable use in developing insect tolerance in susceptible plants.