Protease inhibitors: recent advancement in its usage as a potential biocontrol agent for insect pest management

Abstract

Plant-derived protease inhibitors (PIs) are a promising defensin for crop improvement and insect pest management. Although agronomist made significant efforts in utilizing PIs for managing insect pests, the potentials of PIs are still obscured. Insect ability to compensate nutrient starvation induced by dietary PI feeding using different strategies, that is, overexpression of PI-sensitive protease, expression of PI-insensitive proteases, degradation of PI, has made this innumerable collection of PIs worthless. A practical challenge for agronomist is to identify potent PI candidates, to limit insect compensatory responses and to elucidate insect compensatory and resistance mechanisms activated upon herbivory. This knowledge could be further efficiently utilized to identify potential targets for RNAi-mediated pest control. These vital genes of insects could be functionally annotated using the advanced gene-editing technique, CRISPR/Cas9. Contemporary research is exploiting different in silico and modern molecular biology techniques to utilize PIs in controlling insect pests efficiently. This review is structured to update recent advancements in this field, along with its chronological background.

Genome-Wide Identification and Expression Analysis of the Protease Inhibitor Gene Families in Tomato

“…The SlPI genes are significantly induced under biotic stresses (B. cinerea and TTSWV) ( Figure 6D,E), confirming the role of PI in defense against pests and pathogens [26,[46][47][48]. Despite substantial efforts in projecting PIs as a valuable weapon against pests, the insect insensitivity and efficient tradeoff tactic has resulted in its commercial failure [49]. However, our study shows that the SlPI genes are significantly induced by abiotic stresses, including drought, salt, and heat ( Figure 6A-C).…”

The nutraceutical value of grain legumes: characterisation of bioactives and antinutritionals related to diabesity management

“…Overall, EI and total protein content explained more than 73% of the observed variability for a cumulative coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) equal to 0.92 ( P < 0.01 for both predictive variables). The positive correlation between trypsin inhibitors and total protein content was indicative of the protein nature of the antitryptic activity, whereas the correlation with the EI and consequently with the lectin content may reflect their common ecological role undergoing plant defence mechanisms against insect pests (Macedo et al ., ; Singh et al ., ).…”

“…AI: a-amylase inhibiting activity; GI: a-glucosidase inhibiting activity; RFO: raffinose family oligosaccharides; EI: erythroagglutination index; TI: trypsin inhibiting activity; TP: total polyphenols. with the EI and consequently with the lectin content may reflect their common ecological role undergoing plant defence mechanisms against insect pests (Macedo et al, 2015;Singh et al, 2018).…”

Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of putative digestive proteases in the salivary gland and gut of&nbsp;Empoasca (Matsumurasca)&nbsp;onukii&nbsp;Matsuda

“…Tea cultivars resistant to the infestation of E. onukii were previously reported [11,44]. Proteases inhibitors are potential biocontrol agents for insectpests [45][46][47]. The information presented in this work enriches our understanding of digestive systems of E. onukii and could be targets for development of proteases inhibitors and other biocontrol agents to manage this important tea insect-pest.…”