Insecticidal Toxin Complexes from Photorhabdus luminescens

Various bacterial toxins have potent insecticidal activity. Recently, the Toxin complexes (Tc's) of Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus species have become an increased focus of current research. These large tripartite toxins with molecular masses >1.4 megadaltons consist of three components termed A, B, and C (or TcA, TcB, and TcC). While TcA is involved in receptor binding and toxin translocation, TcC possesses the specific toxin enzyme activity and TcB is a linker between components TcA and TcC. Here, a structure function analysis of the toxins is described and the application of Tc toxins as potential insecticides is discussed.