Scorpion Venom as Pesticide Base

I think that we can all agreethat we need to do clever things when it comes to the insecticide problem  What is out there has been unsatisfactory fora long time and the artful dodging by the industry is running out room as moreeffects become obvious.

A natural toxin suite may simplybe much safer in the long run because nature has already accommodated it.

Here we learn of new advances inunderstanding scorpion venom.  All earlydays of course but there will remain a need, however smart we get.  Crop concentration eliminates a lot of thenatural protections and opens the door to invasive attack.  We need an answer for just that at times andit needs to be something that is inherently natural.

Scorpion venom bad for bugs but good for pesticides

by Staff Writers

East Lansing MI (SPX) Apr 29, 2011

http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Scorpion_venom_bad_for_bugs_but_good_for_pesticides_999.html

Fables have long cast scorpions as bad-natured killers of hapless turtles thatnaively agree to ferry them across rivers. Michigan State Universityscientists, however, see them in a different light.

Ke Dong, MSU insecttoxicologist and neurobiologist, studied the effects of scorpion venom with thehopes of finding new ways to protect plants from bugs. The results, which arepublished in the current issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, haverevealed new ways in which the venom works.

Past research identified scorpion toxin's usefulness in the developmentof insecticides. Its venom attacks various channels and receptors that controltheir prey's nervous and muscular systems.

One major target of scorpion toxins is the voltage-gated sodiumchannel, a protein found in nerve and muscle cells used for rapid electricalsignaling.

"Interestingly, some scorpion toxins selectively affect one typeof sodium channels, but not others," Dong said.

"The goal of our scorpion toxin project is to understand whycertain scorpion toxins act on insect sodium channels, but not their mammaliancounterparts."

Dong and a team of researchers were able to identify amino acidresidues in insect sodium channels that make the channels more vulnerable tothe venom from the Israeli desert scorpion.

The team also discovered that an important sodium channel voltagesensor can influence the potency of the scorpion toxin.

"Investigating the venom's effect on the voltage-gated sodiumchannel could provide valuable information for designing new insecticides thatwork by selectively targeting insect sodium channels," Dong said.

Several classes of insecticides act on sodium channels, but insectsbecome resistant to them over time. The researchers are studying how insectsdevelop resistance and what alternatives can be created to control resistantpests, Dong added.

Scientists from Tel Aviv Universityand the University of California at Irvinecontributed to this study. Dong's research is funded in part by the NationalScience Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Binational Agricultural Research andDevelopment Fund, and MSU AgBioResearch.