Variability of sodium channel toxins in Mesobuthus thersites Advised toolkit for comprehensive venomics

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Variability of sodium channel toxins in Mesobuthus thersites Advised toolkit for comprehensive venomics Abstract Natural venoms constitute vast combinatorial libraries of ion channel ligands with unprecedented properties including high affinity and selectivity. Scorpion venoms in particular are abundant in sodium and potassium channel ligands representing small proteins or peptides, which are traditionally studied by transcriptomics and proteomics approaches. However, a universal algorithm to pursue the examination of multicomponent peptide-rich mixtures such as venoms is lacking. Here we present a general scheme to the analysis of scorpion toxin arsenal with focus on sodium channel ligands. We explored the venom of the Central Asian scorpion Mesobuthus thersites using venom gland transcriptomics and three proteomic methods. We compared traditional automated annotation by Blast2GO with our custom approach based on regular expressions. We found that the traditional annotation is compro...

Evaluation of the insecticidal activity of the spider-venom peptides Dc1a and Ta1a against economically important lepidopteran pests

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Evaluation of the insecticidal activity of the spider-venom peptides Dc1a and Ta1a against economically important lepidopteran pests

Abstract

Lepidopterans are the most economically significant crop pests. They are mainly controlled with chemical insecticides that often suffer from insect resistance and adverse effects on the environment and human health. Insect-specific spider-venom peptides are considered safer, eco-friendly alternatives to chemical insecticides, and two insecticidal spider-venom derived peptides have already been commercialised by Vestaron Corporation, while more candidates are being progressed in global discovery pipelines. This study focusses on two insecticidal spider-venom peptides—Dc1a and Ta1a— and assesses their suitability in targeting five species of lepidopteran pests by injection and oral application, using Vestaron’s commercial ω/κ-Hv1a as a reference. In addition, the potential of bacterial Bt Cry toxins in providing synergistic insecticidal activities with these spider-venom peptides is evaluated. We found that when applied by injection, all peptides caused paralysis and mortality against all tested lepidopteran species within a narrow dose range. In contrast, the differences in insecticidal activity were more pronounced when orally applied. Helicoverpa consistently was the genus most susceptible to the spider-venom peptides, independent of the route of application, which we presume being related to its particular food preferences. Furthermore, we found synergistic activities for co-application of each of the spider-venom peptides with sublethal amounts of Bt Cry toxins in H. armigera. Overall, our results indicate that Dc1a and Ta1a are suitable bioinsecticide candidates for targeting certain lepidopteran pests, with co-application of Bt Cry toxins considered a viable strategy for increasing their efficacy as foliar sprays.
Herzig, V., Wang, Y., Guo, S., & King, G. F. (2025). Evaluation of the insecticidal activity of the spider-venom peptides Dc1a and Ta1a against economically important lepidopteran pests. Toxicon, 108658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2025.108658