Analysis of the viral lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase fusolin and its potential application to pest control

Abstract

Although microbial insecticides are generally safe for vertebrates, plants and the environment, their use has been very limited, mainly because their cost of pest control is much higher than that of chemical insecticides. To expand the use of microbial insecticides, their ability to kill pests needs to be strengthened. Increased activity will reduce the amount applied per unit area and the cost of pest control. The protein fusolin that is produced by the insect viruses entomopoxviruses and baculoviruses strongly synergistically increases the infectivity of insect viruses. Recent studies further elucidated the synergistic effect of the protein on the insecticidal activity of major entomopathogenic bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. Furthermore studies have revealed that fusolin is a lytic chitin monooxygenase, and thus the mechanism of increase in the infectivity and insecticidal activity by fusolin has been elucidated in detail. These advances have expanded the possible practical applications of this protein to pest control and suggest its potential for use in a new field, namely, the development of technologies for efficient biofuel production from biomass such as chitin.