Development of new bioreceptors for pesticides detection

Summary: A screening procedure has been implemented based on the inverse virtual screening technique to identify new bioreceptors for the set up of pesticide biosensors. Different pesticides of interest were docked on a limited database of proteins with known 3D structures. Some compounds of interest were chosen among the following classes: organophosphates, organo-clorurates, carbamates, anilides, neonicotinoids, aromatic and heterocyclic azoto- organics. We have set up automatic procedures for docking and analysis of hundreds of molecules on hundred of structures. We identify many interesting binders among which we focused on an E. coli helicase that was demonstrated to be able to bind a compound on multiple sites that we will refer to as compound C. We will report on the purification of the binder and testing with compound C and others compounds in a fluorescence-based assay.