Nigritoxin is a bacterial toxin for crustaceans and insects

Yannick Labreuche, Sabine Chenivesse, Alexandra Jeudy, Sophie Le Panse, Viviane Boulo, Dominique Ansquer, Sylvie Pagès, Alain Givaudan, Mirjam Czjzek and Frédérique Le Roux ()
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Yannick Labreuche: Ifremer, Unité Physiologie Fonctionnelle des Organismes Marins
Sabine Chenivesse: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models
Alexandra Jeudy: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models
Sophie Le Panse: CNRS, FR 2424, Plateforme Merimage
Viviane Boulo: Ecosystèmes et Aquaculture Durables en Nouvelle-Calédonie, IFREMER, BP 2059
Dominique Ansquer: Ecosystèmes et Aquaculture Durables en Nouvelle-Calédonie, IFREMER, BP 2059
Sylvie Pagès: UMR 1333 “Diversité, Génomes & Interactions Microorganismes - Insectes” Université Montpellier 2 - Place Eugène Bataillon
Alain Givaudan: UMR 1333 “Diversité, Génomes & Interactions Microorganismes - Insectes” Université Montpellier 2 - Place Eugène Bataillon
Mirjam Czjzek: Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models
Frédérique Le Roux: Ifremer, Unité Physiologie Fonctionnelle des Organismes Marins

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The Tetraconata (Pancrustacea) concept proposes that insects are more closely related to aquatic crustaceans than to terrestrial centipedes or millipedes. The question therefore arises whether insects have kept crustacean-specific genetic traits that could be targeted by specific toxins. Here we show that a toxin (nigritoxin), originally identified in a bacterial pathogen of shrimp, is lethal for organisms within the Tetraconata and non-toxic to other animals. X-ray crystallography reveals that nigritoxin possesses a new protein fold of the α/β type. The nigritoxin N-terminal domain is essential for cellular translocation and likely encodes specificity for Tetraconata. Once internalized by eukaryotic cells, nigritoxin induces apoptotic cell death through structural features that are localized in the C-terminal domain of the protein. We propose that nigritoxin will be an effective means to identify a Tetraconata evolutionarily conserved pathway and speculate that nigritoxin holds promise as an insecticidal protein.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01445-z

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