This paper is relevant to the impact areas in the following areas:
| Crops | Maize |
| Traits | Insect Resistance |
| Countries | Not country-specific |
| Regions | Not region-specific |
| Tags | acute toxicity |
The recently discovered insecticidal protein Mpp75Aa1.1 from Brevibacillus laterosporus is a member of the ETX_MTX family of beta-pore forming proteins (β-PFPs) expressed in genetically modified (GM) maize to control western corn rootworm (WCR; Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte). In this manuscript, bioinformatic analysis establishes that although Mpp75Aa1.1 shares varying degrees of similarity to members of the ETX_MTX2 protein family, it is unlikely to have any allergenic, toxic, or otherwise adverse biological effects. The safety of Mpp75Aa1.1 is further supported by a weight of evidence approach including evaluation of the history of safe use (HOSU) of ETX_MTX2 proteins and Breviballus laterosporus. Comparisons between purified Mpp75Aa1.1 protein and a poly-histidine-tagged (His-tagged) variant of the Mpp75Aa1.1 protein demonstrate that both forms of the protein are heat labile at temperatures at or above 55°C, degraded by gastrointestinal proteases within 0.5 min, and have no adverse effects in acute mouse oral toxicity studies at a dose level of 1920 or 2120 mg/kg body weight. These results support the use of His-tagged proteins as suitable surrogates for assessing the safety of their non-tagged parent proteins. Taken together, we report that Mpp75Aa1.1 is the first ETX-MTX2 insecticidal protein from B. laterosporus and displays a similar safety profile as typical Cry proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis.
Safety assessment of Mpp75Aa1.1, a new ETX_MTX2 protein from Brevibacillus laterosporus that controls western corn rootworm (held on an external server, and so may require additional authentication details)
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