Journal
INSECT BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 43, Issue 1, Pages 39-46Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2012.10.008
Keywords
Fungal ribotoxin; Ribonuclease; Ribosome inactivation; Insecticide
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Funding
- Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion [BFQ2009-10185]
- ESFUNPROT-UCM
- Spanish Ministerio de Educacion
- Universidad Complutense
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Fungal ribotoxins were discovered almost 50 years ago as extracellular ribonucleases (RNases) with antitumoral properties. However, the biological function of these toxic proteins has remained elusive. The discovery of the ribotoxin HtA, produced by the invertebrates pathogen Hirsutella thompsonii, revived the old proposal that insecticidal activity would be their long searched function. Unfortunately, HtA is rather singular among all ribotoxins known in terms of sequence and structure similarities. Thus, it was intriguing to answer the question of whether HtA is just an exception or, on the contrary, the paradigmatic example of the ribotoxins function. The work presented uses HtA and a-sarcin, the most representative member of the ribotoxins family, to show their strong toxic action against insect larvae and cells. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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