Research on Biotoxins Based on Model Organisms

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 3333

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Environment, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida International University (FIU), 354 Marine Science, Biscayne Bay Campus, 3000 NE 151st St., North Miami, FL 33181, USA
Interests: cyanobacteria; toxins; bioactive compounds; zebrafish embryo model; natural products
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

Systems-level approaches lie at the forefront of the toxicology, including our understanding of biotoxins. Such approaches are driven by the integration of classical toxicological techniques with state-of-the-art technologies (e.g., omics, in vivo visualization) in relation to the increasing complexity from biochemical, molecular, and cellular to organismal, and even population, levels. More importantly, however, systems-level toxicology has been specifically enabled by the availability of an ever-growing number of model organisms as toxicological systems, which are able to effectively target both relevant “levels” of toxicity (i.e., molecular, cellular, organismal and population) and in the context of naturally occurring biotoxins potentially provide direct relevance to plant and animal health (e.g., agriculture, veterinary medicine, aquaculture/fisheries) and ecosystems (i.e., ecotoxicology). Indeed, studies over the past half-century have seen “evolution” from bacterial and other microbial (e.g., yeast) models to a myriad of invertebrate animal (e.g., Drosphila, C. elegans, Artemia salina) and plant models (e.g., Arabidopsis, Chlamydomonas) to non-mammalian vertebrate systems (e.g., Xenopus, Zebrafish). Evolution of these model systems in relation to toxicology has, in turn, progressed hand in hand with advances in the basic science (in the same systems) of genomes and molecular biology, development, physiology, immunology, and numerous other areas that have further potentiated their utility as toxicological models.

This Special Issue invites both reviews and original research contributions related to the topic of model organisms, and the application of toxicological methodologies to these systems, toward advancement of our understanding of biotoxins from microbes, plants, and animals in relation to (1) their targets, mechanisms, and modes of action; (2) their fate including uptake, bioavailability, and metabolism; and (3) their larger relevance in areas of both human and animal health, as well as agriculture (e.g., crop plants) and ecotoxicology.

Prof. Dr. John Berry
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • model organisms
  • microbial toxins
  • mycotoxins
  • phycotoxins
  • plant toxins
  • systems biology
  • omics
  • in vivo techniques
  • ecotoxicology
  • agriculture

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 2187 KiB  
Article
Isolation and Insecticidal Activity of Essential Oil from Artemisia lavandulaefolia DC. against Plutella xylostella
by Xing Huang, Yulin Huang, Chunyue Yang, Tiantian Liu, Xing Liu and Haibin Yuan
Toxins 2021, 13(12), 842; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins13120842 - 25 Nov 2021
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2707
Abstract
Many plants show significant biological activity against pests due to their unique chemical constituents. It is important to identify effective constituents for their development and utilization as botanical pesticides. Our previous study showed that Artemisia lavandulaefolia essential oil had biological activity against Plutella [...] Read more.
Many plants show significant biological activity against pests due to their unique chemical constituents. It is important to identify effective constituents for their development and utilization as botanical pesticides. Our previous study showed that Artemisia lavandulaefolia essential oil had biological activity against Plutella xylostella. Here, we isolated and identified the constituents of essential oil from A. lavandulaefolia by silica gel column chromatography. The main constituents identified were eucalyptol and caryophyllene oxide, and they were confirmed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Eucalyptol and caryophyllene oxide showed strong contact toxicity against P. xylostella larvae after 24 h of application (Median lethal dose, LD50 = 76.97 μL/mL and 20.71 mg/mL. Furthermore, the two active constituents against P. xylostella adults showed significant fumigant activity (Mmedian lethal concentration, LC50 = 3.25 μL/L and 1.06 mg/L, respectively. Finally, we measured the detoxification enzymes and acetylcholinesterase of the larvae treated with active constituents. The eucalyptol-treated larvae displayed enhanced carboxylesterase (CarE) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activities in an in vivo experiment, but it was lower for acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activity. The activities of the CarE and GST significantly decreased when exposed to caryophyllene oxide. In general, the two active constituents, eucalyptol and caryophyllene oxide, showed high insecticidal activity, which demonstrates their potential to be used as natural insecticides. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Biotoxins Based on Model Organisms)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop