• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.1092-1096
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• 2008

Commercial food products from major cities of Coahuila, Mexico were screened to identify residues of transgenic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and/or proteins. After performed, an inventory on all products that contained a soybean-based ingredient in a commercial grocery store in the city of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, 245 food products were identified and grouped in 15 classes according to the soybean ingredient as well as the manufacturing process used for their elaboration. Similar sampling was made for the different food classes in the cities of Monclova, Piedras Negras, and Torreon. A total of 88 samples were analyzed and DNA was extracted by the hexadecyltrimethyl-ammonium bromide (CTAB) technique with slight modification to obtain better DNA quality (1). In addition, segments of the transgenic genes one that codifies for 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (epsps), cry 1A, and the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) promoter were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The transgenic proteins 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (CP4 EPSPS) and insecticidal crystal protein (Cry 1Ab/Ac) were identified using double antibody sandwich-enzymatic linked immunoassay analysis (DAS-ELISA). Presence of transgenic genes and/or proteins was identified in 35.3% of the commercial products samples.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.459-465
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• 1996

Bacillus thuringiensis serovar. darmstadiensis produced bipyramidal endo-toxin. The toxin protein was purified by Renografin-76 step gradient centrifugation and investigated by electron microscope. Analysis of total plasmid DNA patterns showed that four different size of plasmids existed in wild type B. thuringiensis serovar. darmstadiensis. Total plasmids DNA was isolated and transformed into pst I site of pBR322 cloning vector. Ten clones containing crystal toxin gene were forst screened colony hybridization by using PUYBT 9044 probe ontained B. thuringiensis kurskaki HD 1 toxin gene. Cloned-DNA was digested with EcoR1 and HindIII and transformed to pIBI30 sequencing vector. Finally, 2.6kb and 3.6kb size fragments contatined toxin-gene were cloned with restriction analysis.

• BMB Reports
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.773-782
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• 2007

Different isolates of the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produce multiple crystal (Cry) proteins toxic to a variety of insects, nematodes and protozoans. These insecticidal Cry toxins are known to be active against specific insect orders, being harmless to mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Due to these characteristics, genes encoding several Cry toxins have been engineered in order to be expressed by a variety of crop plants to control insectpests. The cotton boll weevil, Anthonomus grandis, and the fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, are the major economically devastating pests of cotton crop in Brazil, causing severe losses, mainly due to their endophytic habit, which results in damages to the cotton boll and floral bud structures. A cry1Ia-type gene, designated cry1Ia12, was isolated and cloned from the Bt S811 strain. Nucleotide sequencing of the cry1Ia12 gene revealed an open reading frame of 2160 bp, encoding a protein of 719 amino acid residues in length, with a predicted molecular mass of 81 kDa. The amino acid sequence of Cry1Ia12 is 99% identical to the known Cry1Ia proteins and differs from them only in one or two amino acid residues positioned along the three domains involved in the insecticidal activity of the toxin. The recombinant Cry1Ia12 protein, corresponding to the cry1Ia12 gene expressed in Escherichia coli cells, showed moderate toxicity towards first instar larvae of both cotton boll weevil and fall armyworm. The highest concentration of the recombinant Cry1Ia12 tested to achieve the maximum toxicities against cotton boll weevil larvae and fall armyworm larvae were 230 ${\mu}g/mL$ and 5 ${\mu}g/mL$, respectively. The herein demonstrated insecticidal activity of the recombinant Cry1Ia12 toxin against cotton boll weevil and fall armyworm larvae opens promising perspectives for the genetic engineering of cotton crop resistant to both these devastating pests in Brazil.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.81-89
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• 2016

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) has been applied to control insect pests by its suppressive activity against specific target genes. Integrin is a heterodimer (${\alpha}$ and ${\beta}$) transmembrane protein and plays a critical role in cell-to-cell or cell-to-extracellular matrix interactions in eukaryotes. Suppression of ${\beta}$ subunit integrin gene expression by its specific dsRNA (= dsINT) induces significant mortality against target insects. Furthermore, a recombinant bacterium expressing dsINT is potent to kill target insects. However, it is necessary to develop a formulation technique of the dsRNA-expressing bacteria to apply the bacterial insecticide against field populations. This study formulated the recombinant bacteria by freeze-drying and tested its control efficacy against target insects. The formulation maintained significant insecticidal activity against last instar larvae of Spodoptera exigua. While a commercial Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticide exhibited only about 60% insecticidal activity against S. exigua last instar, an addition of the dsINT-expressing bacterial formulation significantly enhanced the Bt insecticidal activity. The dsINT-expressing bacterial formulation exhibited relative selectivity to target insects depending on sequence similarity. These results indicate that a freeze-dried form of dsRNA-expressing bacteria keeps its insecticidal activity.

• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.131-137
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• 2006

This experiment was conducted to select prominent microorganisms with a good insecticidal activity among the ten species, which isolated from soil at the near of Chung-buk, Chung-nam, and Gang-won provinces and made protein crystal endotoxin. As a result, GB-413 strain was finally selected, which showed the high insecticidal activity against susceptible diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella), beet army worm (Spodoptera exigua) and tobacco cutworm (Spodoptera litura) as well as resistant diamondback moth strains. By modifying the cultivation process f.g. lowing the glucose concentration at early cultivation stage and adding the carbon after inducing the spores, the percentage of making spore as well as the number of active spore were increased and the time for cultivation and spore forming was reduced without a reduction of insecticidal activity. These results were not only applied successfully for the optimized cultivation process for a fermentation tank containing five tons capacity, but also improved the possibility of mass cultivation for commercial production.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.585-591
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• 2019

Most insect-resistant LMOs have been produced by applying Cry and Vip3Aa proteins. Vip3Aa protein is activated during the vegetative stage of Bacillus thuringensis (Bt) and the inhibitory activity of the Vip3Aa protein against pathogenic attacks from lepidopteran insect species is well known. However, a risk assessment of the Vip3Aa protein compared to the Cry protein has not been conducted in South Korea. This study demonstrates a possible risk assessment method for Vip3Aa protein against honeybees (Apis mellifera). For the risk assessment of the protein, we purified the recombinant Vip3Aa protein in Escherichia coli. The survival rate and symptoms of general intoxication of 4 months honeybees were measured after Vip3Aa exposure. These results indicated that there was no significant difference in the survival rate and the symptom between Vip3Aa and the control buffer. In this study, we established standard methods of Vip3Aa protein purification and oral adult toxicity test using A. mellifera as an LMO risk assessment technique for preserving the natural ecosystem of South Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.340-345
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• 2004

To investigate the co-expression and crystallization of a fusion gene between the Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein and a foreign protein in B. thuringiensis, the expression of the Cry1Ac fused with green fluorescent protein (GFP) genes in a B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain was examined. The cry1Ac gene was cloned in the B. thuringiensis-E. coli shuttle vector, pHT3101, under the control of the native cry1Ac gene promoter, while the GFP gene was inserted into the XhoI site upstream of the proteolytic cleavage site, in the middle region of the crylAc gene (pProAc-GFP). The B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain carrying pProAc-GFP (ProAc-GFP/CB) did not produce any inclusion bodies. However, the transformed strain expressed fusion protein forms although the expression level was relatively low. Furthermore, an immu­noblot analysis using GFP and Cry1Ac antibodies showed that the fusion protein was not a single spe­cies, but rather multiple forms. In addition, the N-terminal fragment of Cry1Ac and a non-fused GFP were also found in the B. thuringiensis $Cry^-B$ strain after autolysis. The sporulated cells before autolysis and the spore-crystal mixture after autolysis of ProAc-GFP/CB exhibited insecticidal activities against Plutella xylostella larvae. Accordingly, the current results suggest that a fusion crystal protein produced by the transfomant, ProAc-GFP/CB, can be functionally expressed but easily degraded in B. thuring­iensis.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.300-306
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• 1993

The CryIIA gene encoding the insecticidal crystal protein of Bacillus thuringiens!s subsp. kurstalri HD-l has been cloned in Escherichia col!, and its nucleotide sequences were determined completely. 5kb Hindlli fragment harboring CryIIA gene was screened in the large ca. 225kb plasmid DNA by southern blot. HindlIT digested 5kb fragment was ligated into pUC19 and transformed in E. coli. The 4kb BamHI-HindlIT fragment containing the CryIIA gene was subcloned and named pSKIIA. DNA sequence analysis demonstrates that pSKIIA is the gene of an operon which is comprised of Lhree open reading frames (designated orn, orf2 and or£3). The CrylIA gene is composed of 3,952bp-long BamHI-Hindill DNA restriction fragment. The orf3 code for a polypeptide of 633 amino acid residues. The protoxin protein has a predicted molecular weight of 70,780. The E. coli derived protoxin gene product is biologICally active against three species of Lepidopteran (Plu.lelia maculipennis, He/iolhis assulta, Spodoptera litura) and a species of Dip Leran( Culex pipines) larvae in bioassay.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.89-93
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• 2004

Expression of a fusion protein between B. thuringiensis crystal protein, Cry1Ac1 and a scorpion insect toxin (AaIT, Androctonus australis Hector insect toxin) in acrystalliferous B. thuringiensis strain (Cry-B strain) was examined. The cry 1Ac1 gene was cloned in B. thuringiensis-E coli shuttle vector, pHT3101, under the control of the native cry 1Ac1 gene promoter (pProAc) and a gene encoding AaIT was inserted in XhoI site in the middle of the cry 1Ac1 gene (pProAc-ScoR). B. thuringiensis Cry-B strain carrying pProAc-ScoR (PyoAc-ScoR/CB) produced an inclusion body of irregular shape and the expressed fusion protein is approximately 65 kDa in size. Sporulated cells and spore-crystal mixtures of ProAc-ScoR/CB had insecticidal activity against Plutella xylostella larvae, showing $LT_50$ of ProAc-ScoR/CB (22.59 hrs) lower than that of ProAc/CB (30.06 hrs) at $1{\times}{10^7} {CEU/cm^2}$. These results suggest that the fusion protein including a B. thuringiensis crystal protein and an AaIT may be functionally expressed in B. thupingiensis. Moreover, we verified the additive toxicity of AaIT, which is a new feasible candidate for insect control.

• The Journal of Korean Society of Virology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.145-153
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• 1999

We have now constructed a novel recombinant baculovirus Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcNPV) producing polyhedra with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) CryIAc crystal protein. The recombinant polyhedra produced by the recombinant baculovirus, Btrus, in insect cells was characterized. The recombinant baculovirus has two independent transcription units in opposite orientations with two promoters, p10 or polyhedrin gene promoter each initiating transcription of either native polyhedrin or fusion protein with polyhedrin and Bt Cry1Ac crystal protein. Surprisingly, this recombinant baculovirus stably produced recombinant polyhedra which were nearly similar to those of wild-type AcNPV. The immunogold staining experiment showed that the recombinant polyhedra were assembled with polyhedrin and Bt Cry1Ac crystal protein, and contained virus particles. Insecticidal toxicity of recombinant polyhedra of Btrus to the fall webworm, Hyphantria cunea, was strikingly improved in comparison with the wild-type AcNPV.