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Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Vector Competence Analyses on Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes using Zika Virus
Published on: May 31, 2020
Aedes aegypti Galectin Competes with Cry11Aa for Binding to ALP1 To Modulate Cry Toxicity
Ling-Ling Zhang1,2, Xiao-Hua Hu1, Song-Qing Wu1
1State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops and School of Life Science , Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University , Fuzhou 350002 , China.
Abstract:
The key step for the toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) is the interaction between toxins and putative receptors; thus, many studies focus on identification of new toxin receptors and engineering of toxins with higher affinity/specificity for receptors. In the larvae of Aedes aegypti, galectin-14 was one of the genes upregulated by Bti treatment. RNAi knockdown expression of galectin-14 and feeding recombinant galectin-14-thioredoxin fusion protein significantly affected survival of Ae. aegypti larvae treated with Bti toxins. Recombinant galectin-14 protein bound to brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs) of Ae. aegypti larvae, ALP1 and APN2, and galectin-14 and Cry11Aa bound to BBMVs with a similarly high affinity. Competitive binding results showed that galectin-14 competed with Cry11Aa for binding to BBMVs and ALP1 to prevent effective binding of toxin to receptors. These novel findings demonstrated that midgut proteins other than receptors play an important role in modulating the toxicity of Cry toxins.
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