Figure 11.

A genomics/proteomics platform for new insecticide discovery. There are three pathways to discovery, identification and validation of insecticide targets. (A) Bioinformatics pipeline to identify target proteins and to design specific primers or probes for cDNA screening. The process of target selection starts with data mining of a list of protein sequences from available genomic databases. The proteins are selected and categorized based on their potential to mediate insecticidal action. (B) Construction of cDNA libraries from tissue or cell samples, cloning and transfection of selected genes in insect cells and formatting of transfected cells for gene expression. (C) Construction of engineered toxins and target screening for evaluation and validation.