The stability and crystallization of the resulting mutant proteins Cry1Ac′1 and Cry1Ac′3 were affected. Both of them lost their toxicity to the Lepidopteran larvae Ephestia kuehniella. Unlike Cry1Ac′1, Cry1Ac′3 became very sensitive to proteases. Accordingly, the three-dimensional structures of the two mutants were studied. The obtained models showed that both of the residues, Y229, located near the bottom of the α7 helix, and F603, located in the core of domain III, are involved in hydrophobic interactions essential for protein stability and toxicity. These results reveal that conserved amino acids blocs of Cry

toxins have conformational and functional roles. The gram-positive bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis produces insecticidal proteins called δ-endotoxins, or Cry proteins. These proteins ABT-263 order are expressed during sporulation and are packaged into parasporal crystalline inclusions. After ingestion by susceptible insect larvae, crystals are solubilized by the effect of the alkaline pH of the insect midgut. The resulting protoxins (solubilized δ-endotoxins) are converted to their toxic form by midgut proteases. The activated toxins bind to specific receptors situated on midgut epithelial cells and insert into the membrane (Bravo et al.,

1992), leading to the death of the larvae via pore formation and disruption of midgut cellular functions (Schnepf et al., 1998). Cry1A proteins are composed of two structural regions: the N-terminal region, corresponding to the true

toxin, and the C-terminal region, which is cleaved Belinostat chemical structure and removed after protoxin activation (Hofte & Whiteley, 1989). The X-ray crystal structure of Cry1Aa has been determined and has revealed a three-domain composition (Grochulski et al., 1995). Domain I is composed of an α-helix bundle formed by seven helices. Domains II and III are composed mostly of β-sheets (Grochulski et al., 1995; Boonserm et al., 2005, 2006). Domain I is believed to be Edoxaban involved in toxin insertion into the membrane (Schnepf et al., 1998), whereas domains II and III are thought to be implicated in receptor binding and toxin specificity (Pigott & Ellar, 2007). Five blocks of conserved amino acids residues have been identified in the family of Cry toxins (Hofte & Whiteley, 1989; Schnepf et al., 1998). Except for conserved block 1, which covers the central helix (helix 5) of domain I, all the other conserved blocks are entirely or partially involved in domain–domain interactions (Guo et al., 2009). The high homology of such regions suggests that they play important roles in the function of the Cry proteins. To elucidate the role of some amino acids in the structure stability of Cry toxins, a large number of mutagenesis studies have been performed. Some studies have demonstrated the role of hydrophobic amino acids in maintaining the stability of δ-endotoxins (Nuñez-Valdez et al., 2001; Padilla et al., 2006). In a previous work (Dammak et al.