Fermentation for Bioinsecticides
As a leading CDMO, BOC Sciences provides custom services for the development and production of bioinsecticide molecules. Our custom services include strain improvement, enzyme engineering and fermentation process development, and we specialize in fermentation-related projects to meet the needs of our customers in agriculture and other industries.
What is Bioinsecticides?
Bioinsecticides are natural substrates derived from natural materials such as animals, plants, microorganisms, and certain minerals. Bioinsecticides are naturally occurring organisms or compounds that inhibit the growth and proliferation of pest populations through a variety of mechanisms of action, including killing on contact, killing after ingestion, repelling, and inhibiting feeding, growth, reproduction, and other mechanisms. Bioinsecticides can be divided into three categories: microbial bioinsecticides, biochemical insecticides, and plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs). Compared to conventional insecticides that bring negative external effects, the bioinsecticides exhibit the advantages of being biodegradable, harmless to non-target organisms, and also have the ability to counteract pest resistance problems caused by synthetic insecticides.
Classification of Bioinsecticides
Biochemical insecticides
Biochemical pesticides are naturally occurring substances from microorganisms, plants or animals that control pests, including pheromones, attractants, repellents, and botanical insecticides. Among them, microbially produced bioinsecticides have been very successfully developed and widely used, such as avermectin and spinosyn, and their chemically modified derivatives, emamectin and spinetoram, respectively, have also been successfully used to produce new insecticides.
| Biochemical insecticides | Type | Target | Application | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microbial insecticides | Chemicals | Avermectins | Glutamate-gated Cl- channels | They are widely applied as insecticides. |
| Spinosyns | Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor | |||
| Okaramines | L-glutamate-gated chloride channels | It could be developed as new insecticide. | ||
| Microbial toxins | Bt endotoxins | Receptor in the insect midgut cells | They have been used to control mosquito larvae. | |
Table 1. Examples of microbially produced bioinsecticides1
Plant-Incorporated-Protectants (PIPs)
PIPs are insecticidal substances produced by plants through exogenous genetic material. For example, Bt toxins are the most common insecticidal proteins expressed in transgenic crops. Genes for Bt proteins are introduced into the plant's own genetic material, and the plant then makes substances that destroy pests.
Microbial bioinsecticides
Microbial bioinsecticides consist of microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses) as active ingredients. Microbial insecticides are highly effective, species-specific and eco-friendly bioinsecticides.
Fermentation Production of Bioinsecticides
Fermentation is a common biotransformation process of low-cost raw materials carried out by microorganisms. Microbial fermentation can produce high value compounds or useful products for different industries with both environmental and economic benefits. The production of bioinsecticide compounds by microbial fermentation is promising, especially when compared to natural products obtained from plants that have disadvantages such as high extraction and purification costs, low yields of metabolites, and are often subject to environmental conditions. In addition, microbial fermentation, especially solid state fermentation (SSF) can be used to produce and recover secondary metabolites by using agro-industrial wastes as substrates to obtain natural bioinsecticide molecules.
Fig. 1 Fermentation production of bioinsecticides2
Advantages of Bioinsecticides
- Bioinsecticides are safer pest control chemicals that come primarily from natural resources.
- Bioinsecticides are usually less toxic than conventional pesticides.
- Bioinsecticides are target specific and usually affect only the target pest and closely related organisms, whereas traditional pesticides may affect different organisms such as birds, insects and mammals.
- Bioinsecticides are biodegradable, usually effective in very small amounts, and break down rapidly, largely avoiding the environmental pollution caused by traditional insecticides.
- Bioinsecticides can significantly reduce the use of traditional insecticides without adversely affecting crop yields.
Our Services
- Custom fermentation services for the development of bioinsecticide compounds
- Strain improvement to enhance its ability to produce target bioinsecticide molecules
- Strain selection and screening
- Fermentation process optimization
Why Choose BOC Sciences?
- High quality bioinsecticide compounds
- High availability of bioinsecticide compounds
- Fermentation production process control of bioinsecticide compounds
- Patented and proprietary manufacturing method
- Lowest cost of production
References
- QU, M., et al. Bioinsecticides As Future Mainstream Pest Control Agents: Opportunities And Challenges, Front. Agr. Sci. Eng., 2022, 9, 82-97.
- Omarini, A. B., et al. Fermentation as an Alternative Process for the Development of Bioinsecticides, Fermentation, 2020, 6(4), 120.
