Interaction of Bacillus thuringiensis toxins with larval midgut binding sites of Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

In 1996, Bt-cotton (cotton expressing a Bacillus thuringiensis toxin gene) expressing the Cry1Ac protein was commercially introduced to control cotton pests. A threat to this first generation of transgenic cotton is the evolution of resistance by the insects. Second-generation Bt-cotton has been developed with either new B. thuringiensis genes or with a combination of cry genes. However, one requirement for the "stacked" gene strategy to work is that the stacked toxins bind to different binding sites. In the present study, the binding of I-125-labeled Cry1Ab protein (I-125-Cry1Ab) and I-125'-Cry1Ac to brush border membrane vesicles (BBMV) of Helicoverpa armigera was analyzed in competition experiments with 11 nonlabeled Cry proteins. The results indicate that Cry1Aa, Cry1Ab, and Cry1Ac competed for common binding sites. No other Cry proteins tested competed for either I-125-Cry1Ab or I-125-Cry1Ac binding, except Cry1Ja, which competed only at the highest concentrations used. Furthermore, BBMV from four H. armigera populations were also tested with I-125-Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab to check the influence of the insect population on the binding results. Finally, the inhibitory effect of selected sugars and lectins was also determined. I-125-Cry1Ac binding was strongly inhibited by N-acetyl-galactosamine, sialic acid, and concanavalin A and moderately inhibited by soybean agglutinin. In contrast, I-125-Cry1Ab binding was only significantly inhibited by concanavalin A. These results show that Cry1Ac and Cry1Ab use different epitopes for binding to BBMV.