Purified winged bean protease inhibitor affects the growth ofBactrocera cucurbitae

Abstract

The melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), is a serious agricultural pest which has defied the various control measures employed against it. Protease inhibitors present in plants which have the potential to inhibit the growth and development of associated insect pests can be a possible alternative which can be manipulated for developing resistance in plants to the pest. In the present study, winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) protease inhibitor isolated through affinity chromatography was explored for its potential to disrupt the development of melon fruit fly, B. cucurbitae. Different concentrations (12.5, 25, 50, 100, 200, and 400 µg ml−1) of the winged bean protease inhibitor (WBPI) were incorporated into the artificial diet of the second instar (64–72 h old) larvae of B. cucurbitae. The WBPI significantly delayed the larval, pupal, and total development period. The percentage pupation and adult emergence of the treated larvae was reduced as compared with control. The activities of major digestive enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin, leucine aminopeptidase, and elastase) decreased significantly in the larvae treated with different concentrations (50, 100, 200, and 400 µg ml−1) of WBPI. The findings reveal that the inhibitor holds considerable promise for the management of the melon fruit fly.

Investigation of biochemical characters and antioxidant properties of different winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) genotypes grown in Indonesia

“…The essential amino acids, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and oil contents in winged bean seed are similar to soybean (Amoo et al 2011). Moreover, the winged bean was found for containing anti-nutrients such as polyphenol (Singh et al 2019), tannin (Singh et al 2017), phytic acid, trypsin inhibitor, chymotrypsin inhibitor (Mohanty et al 2020), protease inhibitor (Kaur and Sohal 2019), and oxalate (Alalade et al 2016). Traditionally, the winged bean is used to treat diabetes, cancer, infection, eye and migraine diseases, muscle weakness, and asthma (Singh et al 2019).…”