Novel insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian spider venoms

昆虫毒素作为新型生物农药具有相当大的潜力，可以对抗广泛存在的昆虫对经典化学农药的抗药性。这个问题在澳大利亚和国际上都在增加。本研究的目的是从澳大利亚蜘蛛中分离和筛选出有效的、选择性的杀虫神经毒素。我们的实验室将从蜘蛛毒液中分离神经毒素，确定它们在昆虫和哺乳动物生物测定中的选择性，确定它们的一级和三级结构，并通过电生理技术研究它们的结构-功能关系。这些功能和结构数据将允许未来通过分子或合成程序对具有增加的效力、稳定性和选择性的病毒生物农药类似物进行工程改造。

Insecticidal toxins have considerable potential as novel biopesticides to combat the evolution of widespread insect resistance to classical chemical pesticides. This problem is increasing both in Australia and internationally. This study aims to isolate and pharmacologically characterise potent and selective insecticidal neurotoxins from Australian arachnids. Our laboratories will isolate neurotoxins from spider venoms, determine their selectivity in insect and mammal bioassays, determine their primary and tertiary structures, and investigate their structure-function relationships by electrophysiological techniques. These functional and structural data will allow the future engineering, by molecular or synthetic procedures, of viral biopesticide analogues with increased potency, stability and selectivity.