Beetle Larvae Give Bacteria a Beating!

Function

Beetle larvae eat leaf mulch as they grow into adulthood. This leaf mulch contains a lot of mold and invisible, microscopic bacteria, but beetle grubs never get sick from it. How can they grow without suffering from the effects of the mold or bacteria? The answer is defensin, an antibacterial protein produced inside the grubs’ bodies. Defensin is lethal to bacteria as it dissolves their cell membranes. Beetle larvae secrete this defensin to protect themselves from bacterial infections.

Functional Classification

Defense/Stability:
Microbe/germ resistance

Environmental Solution Classification

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Technical Application

Products and Services

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Proposals of Applied Technology

The bacterium MRSA is immune to existing antibiotics and is thus often the cause of mass infections in hospitals. Hospital patients have a weakened immune system, making them more prone to MRSA infection. If defensin became commercially viable as a medicine, it could solve the problem of hospital-acquired infections and also likely aid in the development of a new treatment for athlete’s foot. The antibacterial protein defensin produced by beetle larvae could be turned into a new antibiotic that wipes out our bacterial infections when we get sick.

Proposals of Applied Industry

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