Novel Pesticide Delivery System for Insects: Next Generation Protein Insecticide

Insects pose several challenges to mankind. They consume the food crops that we grow, they transmit diseases to plants, man and animals, and cause infrastructure damage and destruction. Current methods to control insects are largely based on the use of toxic chemicals, principally neurotoxins, which also pose health risks to the users, consumers, and other nontarget organisms. There are numerous examples of safer, naturally occurring biocompatible materials that could be utilized to control insect populations if the material could be applied in such a manner that it was taken up by the target insect and reached its site of action. The technology developed in this project will facilitate the translocation of new biocompatible insecticidal agents (peptides, proteins, or nucleic acids) into the target insect to provide control of insect populations while reducing the risk associated with nontarget exosure. The purpose of this project is to prepare derivatives of Trypsin Modulating Oostatic Factor (TMOF) to enhance its transport across the gut into the hemolymph (blood) of tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens) and evaluate the potential effectiveness of TMOF as a safer, new insect control technology for application to an agriculturally significant insect pest.