• 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.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.157-161
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• 1994

To investigate the morphology of Bacillus thuringiensis crystal proteins, two type crystal protein genes, cryIA(c) gene under the control of cryIA(b) gene promoter and cryIIA gene under the control of its own promoter, were transformed in B. thuringiensis acrystalliferous mutant strain and the transformants were characterized by SDS-PAGE and scanning electron microscopy. The expression and formation of crystal proteins in B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki Cry-B revealed that crystal proteins appear to have same molecular weight and morphology to those of wild type strain's, suggesting that the expression and formation of crystal proteins affected not by host cell or recombination of cryIA(e) gene under the control of cryIA(b) gene promoter but by only structural fragment of protoxin.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.154-159
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• 1996

To isolate Bacillus thuringiensis toxic to Spodoptera species, we collected soil samples in Korea. In these samples, we characterized 7 B. thuringiensis isolates toxic to spodoptera exigua or S. litura from soil, granary and sericultural farm samples. The 7 isolates were named B. thuringiensis STB-1, STB-2, STB-3, STB-4, STB-5, STB-6 and STB-7, respectively. The bioassay of these isolates against S. exigua and S. litura showed highly insecticidal activity. The serotypes of them were determined by agglutination tests using 33 antisera ; STB-1 an STB-2 are identical to B. thuringiensis subsp. kurastaki, and STB-3, STB-4 and STB-5 are identical to subsp. kenyae. STB-6 and STB-7 did not react with 33 antisera. STB-1 and STB-3 which have different gene types from B. thuringiensis subsp. kurastaki and subsp. kenyae are identified new isolates. STB-6 and STB-7 which show no agglutination in serological tests havd cryIA(a), cryIA(b), cryIC, and cryII genes are also identified new isolates. Molecular weights of parasporal inclusions of all isolates were determined approximately 130 kDa by SDS-polyacrylamide gel elctrophoresis.

• Journal of Sericultural and Entomological Science
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 1993

Expression of insecticidal protein by fusion product of truncated HD-1[CryIA(a)] N-terminal and HD-73[CryIA(c)] C-Terminal fragment of Bacillus thruingiensis subsp. kurstaki was investigate. Immunological analysis of transformants by using polyclonal antisera raised against the whole-crystal protein of HD-1 revealed that SK4 and SK5 were observed cross-reaction with polypeptides of 77-kDa and 105-kDa, respectively. Bioassay of the transformant pSK5 to Plutella maculipennis and Heliothis assulta were 96% and 97%, respectively.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 1998

The cryIB, truncated cryIB$[cryIB({\alpha})]$, cryIA(b), and cytA genes, encoding 135-, 89-, 131-, and 27-kDa proteins, respectively, from Bacillus thuringiensis were cloned into a shuttle vector pBES and expressed in E. coli and Bacillus species. The morphology and solubility in alkaline buffer of the insecticidal crystal proteins were investigated. Transformation of intact cells of E. coli and Bacillus species was achieved by electroporation. High field strength of 11.0 kV/cm and resistance of 129 ohms were required for efficient transformation of E. coli strains and 4.5 kV/cm and 48 ohms for Bacillus species. Strains of recombinant E. coli and Bacillus species produced the insecticidal crystal proteins and accumulated as the same bipyramidal and irregular structures as those of CryIB and IA(b) and CytA of B. thuringiensls, respectively. The insecticidal crystal proteins accumulated in recombinant E. coli wire smaller in size than those in recombinant Bacillus species. The solubility in alkaline buffer of the insecticidal crystal proteins of recombinant E. coli increased gradually as the pH increased, whereas in the case of Bacillus species the solubility increased gradually as the pH increased up to 9 and then the solubility increased greatly up to two times higher than that of E. coli proteins.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2000

A Bacillus thuringiensis designated NT0423, belonging to B. thuringiensis subsp. aizawai (H 7), was isolated from samples of dust and soil of sericultural farms. B. thuringiensis NT0423 having dualspecificity against Lepidoptera and Diptera produced bipyramidal inclusions consisting of two major polypeptides of approximately 130- and 70-kDa. Proteolytic processing by trypsin and gut juice of Bombyx mori yielded predominant proteins with molecular masses of about 66-kDa. The whole crystal protein of B. thuringiensis NT0423 immunologically was related to that of B. thuringiensis subsp. aizawai. PCR analysis showed that B. thuringiensis NT0423 has at least five crystal protein genes including cryIA(a), cryIA(b), cryIC, cryID and cryIIA, and southern blot was determined the location of each gene on intact and enzyme-digested plasmid DNA fragments. Except for cryIA(a) gene on the high molecular weight plasmid of 165-kb, all of four genes were located on the plasmid of 66-kb. The production of $\beta$-exotoxin from B. thuringiensis NT0423 was identified by the HPLC analysis. In addition, the $\beta$-exotoxin showed its ability to prevent pupation of treated larvae of house flies (Musca domestica) from developing into normal adults.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.535-537
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• 2023

We report the draft genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis serovar aizawai AS23, an insecticidal strain targeting lepidopteran pests, which was isolated from the rhizosphere of Korean melon (Cucumis melo L.). The genome of strain AS23 comprising 6,846,584 bp with a G + C content of 34.83% was assembled to 11 contigs obtained using hybrid assembly. Additionally, we mined the genome for pesticidal genes, identifying several insecticidal genes, including Cry1Aa3, Cry1Ca9, Cry1Da2, Cry1Ia44, Cry2Ab41, Cry9Ea9, Spp1Aa1, and Vip3Aa86.

• 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.