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. 2006 Jun 12;49(2-3):153–160. doi: 10.1007/s10616-006-6880-y

Mechanisms for Bt Toxin Resistance and Increased Chemical Pesticide Susceptibility in Cry1Ac10-resistant Cultured Insect Cells

Kaiyu Liu 1, Jin Zheng 1, Huazhu Hong 1,✉, Jianxin Peng 1, Hong Yang 1, Rong Peng 1
PMCID: PMC3449901

Abstract

Cabbage looper moth (Trichoplusia ni) cell line BTI-Tn-5B1-4 (TnH5) has developed high-level resistance (>1000 fold) by the selection of Bt Cry1Ac10 toxin. In order to examine mechanisms of resistance to Cry1Ac10 toxin (biological pesticide), both general esterase activities and cell tolerance to osmotic lysis were compared between non-selected Cry1Ac10-susceptible Trichoplusia ni cell line TnH5-S and Cry1Ac10-resistant Trichoplusia ni cell line TnH5-R selected by Bt Cry1Ac10. The Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5-R cells had lower general esterase activity than the non-selected TnH5-S cells, and the esterase isozyme bands for the Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5-R cells were much weaker than that for the non-selected TnH5-S cells. Both activated Cry1Ac10 toxin and multi-toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai GC-91 (an engineering bacterium) could not inhibit the esterase activity both in the Cry1Ac10-susceptible and Cry1Ac10-resistant cells, but two chemical pesticides, chlopyrifos and methomyl, could greatly inhibit the esterase activities both in the TnH5-R and TnH5-S cells. On the other hand, cell tolerance to osmotic lysis caused by hypotonic solution for the Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5-R cells was higher than that for the non-selected TnH5-S cells (2.5×). Based on these results, we made the following conclusions. The general esterase activities in the Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5-R cells was not related to Bt Cry1Ac10 resistance, but the susceptibility to the two tested chemical pesticides increased in TnH5-R cells because of their lower esterase activity. The increase of cell tolerance to osmotic lysis for the Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5-R cells may be one of the mechanisms for Bt toxin resistance because midgut cells of insects are also disrupted by an osmotic lysis caused by Bt toxin.

Keywords: Bacillus thuringiensis, Chemical pesticide, Esterase, Osmotic lysis, Resistance, Trichoplusia ni cell line

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Glossary

Bt

Bacillus thuringiensis

DTT

DL-dithiothreitol

ELISA

enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

MTT

tetrazolium salt

α-NA

α-naphthyl acetate

β-NA

β-naphthyl acetate

SDS

sodium dodecyl sulphate

TnH5-S

Cry1Ac10-susceptible TnH5 cell

TnH5-R

Cry1Ac10-resistant TnH5 cell

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