Abstract
Pests are small organisms which are detrimental for humans, crops, livestock and forestry and mainly belong to phylum Arthropoda. Insects serve as pests for destroying agriculture while mosquitoes are even a greater problem to the humans as they act as vectors to transmit the disease-causing germs and viruses for deadly diseases like malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever, filariasis, etc. Use of chemicals is obvious choice but pose a great environmental issue due to their persistent nature and overall damage to the biodiversity. The only possible and the most potent alternative to chemical pesticides is to look for a biological alternate or biocide, one of which is, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bacillales: Bacillaceae), a microbe that produces ‘Cry’ protein that is at the crux of its bio pesticidal property. Till date there are hundreds of different Cry proteins identified that can target large variety of agriculture pests (Lepidopteran, Dipteran, and Coleopteran larvae, Orthopteran pests) and human pests especially mosquitoes such as Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Moreover, the Cry proteins can inventively be modified with the help of modern biotechnological computational biotechnological advancements for improved potency, addressed as chimeric proteins and are proposed to be boon for control of vector borne diseases. The aim of this review article is to revisit the strategic role of B. thuringiensis as a potential Dipteran vector control agent and shed new light upon some recent in-silico approaches which might further improve the strategy.
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