Table 1.

Affinity to the PA1b binding site and insect cell toxicity of synthetic peptides

(−) scores a negative result (no toxicity nor binding in the toxin range assayed)

PA1b the referent molecule and AG41, the Mtr A1b with the highest toxicity were respectively highlighted in grey and pink. The nomenclature for the Mtr A1b (AS37…) was arbitrarily defined as the first and last amino acid in the sequence and the total length. Cysteine architecture is highlighted in yellow. Sites under positive selection in their respective branches are reported as grey background (see PAML analysis, Table 2)

^aVariant amino-acids in AG41 compared to PA1b sequence are boldfaced

^bThe Ki of PA1b and the synthetic peptides was determined by ligand binding using 125I-PA1b, according to [12]

^cLC50 calculated from biological assays performed on cultured Sf9 cells according to Rahioui et al. [32]