The crop protection industry has for several decades been intrigued by the potential to use insecticidal peptides from insect predators to control insects. These products have the advantage of having low off-target toxicity, not persistent and based on sustainable inputs. There are three gating grand challenges for commercialization of such a product: economic manufacturing, bioavailability and a regulatory path. Vestaron has solved these problems with the launch of SPEAR®, whose active ingredient, GS-ω/κ-hexatoxin-Hv1a, is based on a funnel web spider peptide that is an agonist of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor in insects. This novel mode of action has recently been recognized by the Insect Resistance Action Committee with a new neuromuscular code: 32. This provides growers with an important new tool for the control of insects and sets a precedent for the future direction insecticide development.
With this foundation we show how it is possible pull forward a number of peptides, known to the literature, as viable leads for crop protection products. This optimization process tackles problems such as stability, expressibility, and glycosylation while maintaining potency and spectrum.