• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.57-61
• /
• 2005

A strain of Bacillus thuringiensis that showed signifi­cantly high toxicity to Plutella xylostella was isolated from a dust sample collected from Chinese tobacco warehouse and characterized. The isolate named B. thuringiensis LY-99 was determined to belong to subsp. alesti (H3a3c) by an H antisera agglutination test and produced bipyramidal inclusions. Plasmid and crystal protein patterns of the LY-99 were different from those of the reference strain, subsp. alesti. PCR analysis with specific primers revealed that this isolate contained abundant cry genes including crylAa, crylAc, crylB, crylD, crylE, crylF and cry2 genes, which was absolutely different from cry gene profile of the subsp. alesti. In addition, insecticidal activity of the LY-99 against P. xylostella larvae was about 44 times higher than that of the subsp. alesti.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.55-62
• /
• 1975

In the studies of characterization of crystal prototoxin isolated from Bacillus thuringinensis var. alesti and its bioassay to the silkworm larvae, Bombyx mori L., the following results were obtained. 1. The complete lysis of bacteria grown on the nutrient agar at 30$^{\circ}C$ in an incubator took 30 days, but the period could be reduced by a half in a devised broth media in a fermentation jar. 2. The protein toxin extracted directly from a mixture of crystals and spores without separation of crystals and spores was pure as same as the protein toxin extracted from only crysals separated. 3. By SLS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of prototoxin released from crystals in alkali (pH 9.5) three different proteins in molecular weights of 120,000, 87,000, 74,000 were separated. 4. In the bioassay of the toxin to the silkworm larvae, LD$\sub$50/ per gram of the larvae in the 4th instar was 0.080 $\mu\textrm{g}$.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.18-27
• /
• 2009

B. thuringiensis strain LY-99 belonging to subsp. alesti (H3a3c), was isolated from Chinese tobacco warehouse and showed significantly high toxicity to Plutella xylostella. For the identification of the cry1-type genes from B. thuringiensis LY-99, an extended multiplex PCRrestriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP) method was established by using two pairs of universal primers based on the conserved regions of the cry1-type genes to amplify around 2.4 kb cry1-type gene fragments. Then the DNA fragment was cloned into pGEM-T Easy vector and digested with EcoRI and EcoRV enzymes. Through this method, a known cry1-type gene was successfully identified from the reference strain, B. thuringiensis subsp. alesti. In addition, the RFLP patterns revealed that B. thuringiensis LY-99 included a novel cry1A-type gene in addition to cry1Aa, cry1Ac, cry1Be and cry1Ea genes. The novel cry1A-type gene was designated cry1Ah2 (Genbank accession No DQ269474). An inverse PCR method was used to amplify the flank regions of cry1Ah2 gene. Finally, 3143 bp HindIII fragment from B. thuringiensis LY-99 plasmid DNA including 5' region and partial ORF was amplified, and sequence analysis revealed that cry1Ah2 gene from LY-99 showed 89.31% of maximum sequence similarity with cry1Ac1 crystal protein gene. In addition, the deduced amino acid sequence of Cry1Ah2 protein shared 87.80% of maximum identity with that of Cry1Ac2. This protein therefore belongs to a new class of B. thuringiensis crystal proteins.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.348-351
• /
• 1988

The production of extracellular $\alpha$-amylase by Bacillus thuringiensis 19 serotypes was examined by the hydrolysis test of starch. Thirteen serotypes produced the amylase. B. thuringiensis serovar thuringiensis alesti, kurstaki, sotto, kenya, israelensis, morrisoni, entomocidus, tolworthi, thompsoni, toumanoffi, pakistani, and indiana produced tee enzyme. The amylase produced by B. thuringiensis serovar israelensis showed highest activity around pH 6.7 to 7.2 and 55$^{\circ}C$ to $65^{\circ}C$. The high production medium of the amylase was composed of 1% bactopeptone, 0.3% beef-extract, 0.3% yeast ex-tract, 0.5% NaCl, 0.3% $K_2$HPO$_4$, 0.1% KH$_2$PO$_4$, 0.2% Soluble Starch, 0.012% CaCl$_2$.2$H_2O$$_2$, 0.005% MnCl$_2$, and 0.03% MgCl$_2$.7$H_2O$. The highest production of the enzyme was observed at 4 hours culture in the soluble starch (0.6 units/$m\ell$) or glucose (0.43 units/$m\ell$) substrate.