Skip to main content
PMC home page
Applied and Environmental Microbiology logoLink to Applied and Environmental Microbiology
. 1997 Apr;63(4):1195–1198. doi: 10.1128/aem.63.4.1195-1198.1997

Distribution and characterization of mosquitocidal toxin genes in some strains of Bacillus sphaericus.

F G Priest 1, L Ebdrup 1, V Zahner 1, P E Carter 1
PMCID: PMC168413  PMID: 9097416

Abstract

The binary toxin of Bacillus sphaericus strains forms a crystal in sporulating cells, while the mosquitocidal toxin is located in the cytoplasm of vegetative cells. The distribution of binary toxin (btx) and mosquitocidal toxin (mtx) genes in 53 strains of B. sphaericus was determined by hybridization of specific gene probes to chromosomal DNA in Southern blots. btx genes were found in all strains of serotype 5a5b examined and in some strains of serotypes 1a, 3, 6, 25, and 48, while mtx genes were detected in strains of serotypes 1a, 2a2b, 5a5b, 6, 9a9c, 25, and 48. Serotype 26a26b strains lacked both toxin genes, as did some strains of serotypes 2a2b, 3, 6, and 48. Partial DNA sequences of btx genes from five strains, together with published sequences, revealed four types of toxin among mosquitocidal B. sphaericus strains. most of the 42-kDa toxin gene of btx was identical in strains from serotypes 1a, 3, 6, and 48, and the gene is here classified as a type 1 btx gene. A serotype 3 strain isolated in Singapore possessed a unique 42-kDa toxin gene, here designated type 4; while the btx genes from strains of serotypes 5a5b and 25 are referred to as types 2 and 3, respectively.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (348.6 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Aquino de Muro M., Mitchell W. J., Priest F. G. Differentiation of mosquito-pathogenic strains of Bacillus sphaericus from non-toxic varieties by ribosomal RNA gene restriction patterns. J Gen Microbiol. 1992 Jun;138(6):1159–1166. doi: 10.1099/00221287-138-6-1159. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Aquino de Muro M., Priest F. G. A colony hybridization procedure for the identification of mosquitocidal strains of Bacillus sphaericus on isolation plates. J Invertebr Pathol. 1994 May;63(3):310–313. doi: 10.1006/jipa.1994.1058. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Baumann L., Broadwell A. H., Baumann P. Sequence analysis of the mosquitocidal toxin genes encoding 51.4- and 41.9-kilodalton proteins from Bacillus sphaericus 2362 and 2297. J Bacteriol. 1988 May;170(5):2045–2050. doi: 10.1128/jb.170.5.2045-2050.1988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Baumann P., Clark M. A., Baumann L., Broadwell A. H. Bacillus sphaericus as a mosquito pathogen: properties of the organism and its toxins. Microbiol Rev. 1991 Sep;55(3):425–436. doi: 10.1128/mr.55.3.425-436.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Berry C., Hindley J., Ehrhardt A. F., Grounds T., de Souza I., Davidson E. W. Genetic determinants of host ranges of Bacillus sphaericus mosquito larvicidal toxins. J Bacteriol. 1993 Jan;175(2):510–518. doi: 10.1128/jb.175.2.510-518.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Berry C., Jackson-Yap J., Oei C., Hindley J. Nucleotide sequence of two toxin genes from Bacillus sphaericus IAB59: sequence comparisons between five highly toxinogenic strains. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Sep 25;17(18):7516–7516. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.18.7516. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Charles J. F., Nielson-LeRoux C., Delécluse A. Bacillus sphaericus toxins: molecular biology and mode of action. Annu Rev Entomol. 1996;41:451–472. doi: 10.1146/annurev.en.41.010196.002315. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Davidson E. W. Biochemistry and mode of action of the Bacillus sphaericus toxins. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 1995 Jan-Feb;90(1):81–86. doi: 10.1590/s0074-02761995000100018. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Liu J. W., Hindley J., Porter A. G., Priest F. G. New high-toxicity mosquitocidal strains of Bacillus sphaericus lacking a 100-kilodalton-toxin gene. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1993 Oct;59(10):3470–3473. doi: 10.1128/aem.59.10.3470-3473.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Liu J. W., Porter A. G., Wee B. Y., Thanabalu T. New gene from nine Bacillus sphaericus strains encoding highly conserved 35.8-kilodalton mosquitocidal toxins. Appl Environ Microbiol. 1996 Jun;62(6):2174–2176. doi: 10.1128/aem.62.6.2174-2176.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Oei C., Hindley J., Berry C. Binding of purified Bacillus sphaericus binary toxin and its deletion derivatives to Culex quinquefasciatus gut: elucidation of functional binding domains. J Gen Microbiol. 1992 Jul;138(7):1515–1526. doi: 10.1099/00221287-138-7-1515. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Thanabalu T., Hindley J., Jackson-Yap J., Berry C. Cloning, sequencing, and expression of a gene encoding a 100-kilodalton mosquitocidal toxin from Bacillus sphaericus SSII-1. J Bacteriol. 1991 May;173(9):2776–2785. doi: 10.1128/jb.173.9.2776-2785.1991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Thanabalu T., Porter A. G. A Bacillus sphaericus gene encoding a novel type of mosquitocidal toxin of 31.8 kDa. Gene. 1996 Apr 17;170(1):85–89. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(95)00836-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Woodburn M. A., Yousten A. A., Hilu K. H. Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting of mosquito-pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains of Bacillus sphaericus. Int J Syst Bacteriol. 1995 Apr;45(2):212–217. doi: 10.1099/00207713-45-2-212. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Zahner V., Rabinovitch L., Cavados C. F., Momen H. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis on agarose gel as an aid to the identification of entomopathogenic Bacillus sphaericus strains. J Appl Bacteriol. 1994 Apr;76(4):327–335. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.1994.tb01636.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Applied and Environmental Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES