1. Unusually high frequency of genes encoding vegetative insecticidal proteins in an Australian Bacillus thuringiensis collection
- Author
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Cheryl E. Beard, Leon N. Court, Roslyn Mourant, Jeroen Van Rie, Raymond J. Akhurst, and Annemie Boets
- Subjects
Sequence analysis ,Bacillus thuringiensis ,Helicoverpa armigera ,Moths ,medicine.disease_cause ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,Insect Control ,law.invention ,Bacterial Proteins ,Gene Frequency ,law ,medicine ,Escherichia coli ,Animals ,Gene ,Polymerase chain reaction ,biology ,Strain (chemistry) ,Australia ,General Medicine ,biology.organism_classification ,Restriction fragment length polymorphism - Abstract
Of 188 Australian Bacillus thuringiensis strains screened for genes encoding soluble insecticidal proteins by polymerase chain reaction/restriction-length fragment polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, 87% showed the presence of such genes. Although 135 isolates (72%) produced an RFLP pattern identical to that expected for vip3A genes, 29 isolates possessed a novel vip-like gene. The novel vip-like gene was cloned from B. thuringiensis isolate C81, and sequence analysis demonstrated that it was 94% identical to the vip3Ba1 gene. The new gene was designated vip3Bb2. Cell-free supernatants from both the B. thuringiensis strain C81 and from Escherichia coli expressing the Vip3Bb2 protein were toxic for the cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera.
- Published
- 2008