Inside UQ Research: How to protect crops as agricultural pests rapidly develop resistance to existing pesticides
In our Inside UQ Research series, we spotlight existing work from across UQ, sharing research and ideas that are shaping the future, whether or not they sit within our programs.
This edition highlights innovative research asking a pressing question for the future of farming: what comes next when existing pesticides no longer work?
Meet Associate Professor Michael Landsberg, whose research explores how structural insights into bacterial toxins can be used to tackle one of agriculture’s most pressing challenges: pest resistance.
Based in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at The University of Queensland (UQ), Michael leads a cryo-electron microscopy lab working at the atomic level to understand how these toxins function. His research focuses on discovering and engineering new biopesticides with entirely new modes of action, offering farmers practical alternatives as resistance to existing pesticides continues to emerge.
Associate Professor Michael Landsberg
Role: Associate Professor, School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, UQ.
Title of Research: How can structural insights into bacterial toxins be used to discover and engineer new biopesticides that overcome agricultural pest resistance?
Research Aim: Discover and engineer new biopesticides with novel modes of action to help protect crops as resistance emerges in major insect pest species.
Problem: Pesticide resistance is following the same trajectory as antimicrobial resistance; it emerges rapidly, and several major insect pests are now showing signs of resistance to widely used products. Compounding this, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt)-derived products are believed to account for a major share of the global biopesticide market, with some estimates placing the figure around 90%, though the exact number should be verified.
When the world protects its crops with one strategy, the conditions for resistance are almost guaranteed. The pipeline of new biopesticides, particularly biologically derived ones with different modes of action, has not kept up with the rate at which resistance is emerging.
Impact: Biologically derived pesticides are less likely to harm the environment and can offer modes of action that existing chemistries cannot. A real pipeline of novel biopesticides gives farmers genuine alternatives when resistance appears, protecting agricultural productivity globally. The work feeds directly into collaborations like our project with AgResearch in New Zealand, which is exploring one of our toxins as a biopesticide for diamondback moths, a major pest affecting canola and leafy vegetables.
What excites me: We use cryo-EM, which lets us see molecules at the angstrom scale, 10−10 metres, fine enough to resolve the bond between two atoms. At that resolution, the conversation shifts from discovery to engineering. Once you can see how a toxin works at the atomic level, you can compare its structure to others, identify where resistance is likely to evolve, and ask whether parts of different molecules can be combined to create something entirely new, with targeted specificity for a problematic pest or a structure that side-steps existing resistance. It is closer to synthetic biology than to traditional biopesticide hunting. Nature wrote the first draft. The opportunity is to write the next one.
What I am actually doing: I run a cryo-EM lab in SCMB studying bacterial toxins from insectpathogenic bacteria; naturally occurring organisms that target insects and produce toxins as part of that process. We mine biodiversity for new strains, use cryo-EM to map the structure and mechanism of the toxins we find, and work with collaborators in Australia and New Zealand to test them as biopesticide candidates. Where the structure suggests an opportunity, we engineer modified versions, combining features from different toxins to improve specificity or counter emerging resistance. You can learn more about the research on the SCMB website or through the school's research booklet and honours information sessions held each semester.
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