A library of 600 taxonomically diverse Panamanian plant extracts was screened for fungicidal, insecticidal, and herbicidal activities. A total of 19 active extracts were submitted to HPLC-based activity profiling, and extracts of Bocconia frutescens, Miconia affinis, Myrcia splendens, Combretum aff. laxum, and Erythroxylum macrophyllum were selected for the isolation of compounds. Chelerythrine...

Particular groups of plant-beneficial fluorescent pseudomonads are not only root colonizers that provide plant disease suppression, but in addition are able to infect and kill insect larvae. The mechanisms by which the bacteria manage to infest this alternative host, to overcome its immune system, and to ultimately kill the insect are still largely unknown. However, the investigation of the few...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is popularly known as insecticidal bacterium. However, non-insecticidal Bt strains are more extensively available in natural environment than the insecticidal ones. Parasporin (PS) is a collection of genealogically heterogeneous Cry proteins synthesized in non-insecticidal isolates of Bt. An important character generally related with PS proteins is their strong cytoc...

Many insect pests have developed resistance to existing chemical insecticides and consequently there is much interest in the development of new insecticidal compounds with novel modes of action. Although spiders have deployed insecticidal toxins in their venoms for over 250 million years, there is no evolutionary selection pressure on these toxins to possess oral activity since they are injecte...

Thuringiensin (Thu), also known as β-exotoxin, is a thermostable secondary metabolite secreted by Bacillus thuringiensis. It has insecticidal activity against a wide range of insects, including species belonging to the orders Diptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, and Isoptera, and several nematode species. The chemical formula of Thu is C22H32O19N5P, and it is composed of a...

Four genes on a genomic fragment from Xenorhabdus nematophilus PMFI296 were shown to be involved in insecticidal activity towards three commercially important insect species. Each gene was expressed individually and in combinations in Escherichia coli, and the insecticidal activity of the lysates was determined. The combined four genes (xptA1, xptA2, xptB1, and xptC1), in E. coli, showed activi...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a valuable environmentfriendly biopesticide, which occupies 90% of the world biopesticide market. Its insecticidal properties are attributed to the presence of δ-endotoxins which are synthesized during the sporulation phase of the bacterium. δ-endotoxin or crystal toxin is a multidomain protein molecule comprising of three distinct domains. Domain I is made of sev...