Patent ID: 7160688

Claim:
A method for screening candidate ligands to identify ligands that bind to a Heliothus zea insect receptor polypeptide, said method comprising: a) providing at least one Heliothus zea insect receptor polypeptide, wherein the polypeptide is selected from the group consisting of: i) the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:4; and, iv) the amino acid sequence of a sequence variant of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:4, wherein said sequence variant has Bt toxin binding activity and has at least 95% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO:4; b) contacting said polypeptide with a candidate ligand and a control ligand under conditions promoting binding of the candidate ligand or the control ligand to the polypeptide, wherein the control ligand is a Cry1A toxin; and c) determining the binding characteristics of said candidate ligand, relative to said control ligand, wherein the binding characteristics are selected from the group consisting of binding affinity, binding site specificity, association rate, and dissociation rate, and thereby identifying a candidate ligand that binds to the Heliothus zea insect receptor polypeptide.