Av3 Mutant Polypeptides for Insect Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Deleterious insects pose a significant threat to human health and food security due to their role as disease vectors and their ability to damage crops, leading to financial losses and potential starvation.
Innovation Solution
Development of an Av3 mutant polypeptide (AMP) with insecticidal activity, comprising an amino acid sequence at least 95% identical to a specific formula, which can be expressed in plants to provide protection against insects.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional insect control methods are used, then insect populations are reduced, but human health and food security remain threatened due to insect resistance and environmental damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the amino acid sequence of the Av3 peptide by introducing specific mutations (such as N10D, Q11N, G12P substitutions) to alter its properties. These parameter changes in the peptide structure enable enhanced insecticidal activity against resistant insect populations while maintaining stability and reducing environmental harm, directly resolving the contradiction between control effectiveness and harmful factors
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates composite peptide structures by combining the mutated Av3 peptide sequence with specific amino acid compositions and structural features. This composite approach, involving multiple mutant variants with different amino acid substitutions, produces a synergistic effect that overcomes insect resistance while minimizing environmental damage, addressing both aspects of the technical contradiction
2Reliability
If insecticidal proteins are expressed in plants, then plant protection from insect damage is improved, but the complexity of plant genetic modification increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential insecticidal functional domain from the complete Av3 peptide sequence by identifying and utilizing specific mutated regions. By focusing on the critical amino acid mutations (such as positions 10-12 substitutions) that provide insecticidal activity, the invention simplifies the genetic modification requirement while maintaining effective plant protection, thus resolving the contradiction between protection effectiveness and modification complexity
Data Source
AI summary
New insecticidal peptides, polypeptides, proteins, and nucleotides; their expression in culture and plants; methods of producing the peptides, polypeptides, proteins, and nucleotides; new processes; new production techniques; new formulations; and new organisms, are disclosed. The present disclosure is also related to mutants named Av3 mutant polypeptides (AMPs) that are a non-naturally occurring, modified-form of the peptide, Av3, isolated from the sea anemone, Anemonia viridis. Here we describe: polynucleotides encoding AMPs; various formulations and combinations of both polynucleotides and peptides; and methods for using the same that are useful for the control of insects.