Disease relevance of SFI1

• Whereas neither GNA nor SFI1 alone showed acute toxicity when fed to larvae of tomato moth (Lacanobia oleracea), feeding SFI1/GNA fusion at 2.5% of dietary proteins was insecticidal to first stadium larvae, causing 100% mortality after 6 days [1].

High impact information on SFI1

• Sfi1p contains multiple internal repeats that are also present in a Schizosaccharomyces pombe protein, which also localizes to the SPB, and in several human proteins, one of which localizes close to the centriole region [2].
• We identified a novel functional relationship in SPB separation between the microtubule stabilizing protein Bik1p/CLIP-170 and the SPB half-bridge protein Sfi1p [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of SFI1

• Delivery of intact SFI1/GNA to the haemolymph in these insects was shown by western blotting; haemolymph samples from fusion-fed larvae contained a GNA-immunoreactive protein of the same molecular weight as the SFI1/GNA fusion [1].
• SFI1/GNA and similar fusion proteins offer a novel and effective approach for delivering haemolymph active toxins by oral administration, which could be used in crop protection by expression in transgenic plants [1].

References