• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.247-255
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• 1992

A laboratory bioassay that incorporates Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) purified crystal protein toxins into an artificial diet has identified three toxins, CryIA(b), CryIA(c), and CryIIA, to by effective against the yellow stemborer, Scirpophaga incertulas(Walker). Research is aimed at engineering rice that incorporates genes of one of or more of these toxins so as to mimic the insecticidal action of the insect to Bt. The paper discusses potential strategies for slowing the rate of adaptation that include the use of multiple Bt toxins, promoters that express the toxins only in specific plant tissues at specific times, and mixing transgenic and non-transgenic plants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Sericultural Science Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.72-72
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• 2003

A new Bacillus thuringiensis strain (Kl), having high toxicities to Plutella xylostella and Spodoptera exigua was isolated from Korean soil sample. It was determined to belong to subsp. kurstaki (H3a3b3c) and produced bipyramidal inclusion. PCR-RFLP analysis showed that this isolate contains three novel cryl-type crystal protein genes in addition to crylAa and crylE genes. (omitted)

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.547-559
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• 2007

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was first described by Berliner [10] when he isolated a Bacillus species from the Mediterranean flour moth, Anagasta kuehniella, and named it after the province Thuringia in Germany where the infected moth was found. Although this was the first description under the name B. thuringiensis, it was not the first isolation. In 1901, a Japanese biologist, Ishiwata Shigetane, discovered a previously undescribed bacterium as the causative agent of a disease afflicting silkworms. Bt was originally considered a risk for silkworm rearing but it has become the heart of microbial insect control. The earliest commercial production began in France in 1938, under the name Sporeine [72]. A resurgence of interest in Bt has been attributed to Edward Steinhaus [105], who obtained a culture in 1942 and attracted attention to the potential of Bt through his subsequent studies. In 1956, T. Angus [3] demonstrated that the crystalline protein inclusions formed in the course of sporulation were responsible for the insecticidal action of Bt. By the early 1980's, Gonzalez et al. [48] revealed that the genes coding for crystal proteins were localized on transmissible plasmids, using a plasmid curing technique, and Schnepf and Whiteley [103] first cloned and characterized the genes coding for crystal proteins that had toxicity to larvae of the tobacco hornworm, from plasmid DNA of Bt subsp. kurstaki HD-1. This first cloning was followed quickly by the cloning of many other cry genes and eventually led to the development of Bt transgenic plants. In the 1980s, several scientists successively demonstrated that plants can be genetically engineered, and finally, Bt cotton reached the market in 1996 [104].

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2004

Bacillus thuringiensis produces crystal proteins toxic to medically and agriculturally important pests during sporulation. To improve the activity of insecticidal crystal protein in applying to mosquito larval control, an expression vector, pSyn4D harboring the mosquitocidal cry11Aa gene under control of psbA promoter of Amaranthus hybridus was constructed. This expression vector was transformed into Synechocystis PCC6803 and a transformant, Tr2C was selected with kanamycin. The mosquitocidal cry11Aa gene was stably integrated Into genomic DNA of Tr2C in PCR detection using cry11Aa-specific primers. The transformant expressed 72-kDa Cry11Aa protein and median lethal time (LT$\sub$50/) was approximately 2.1 days for Culex tritaeniorhynchus larvae and 0.7 day for Anopheles sinensis larvae, respectively. These results suggest this transformant can be used for mosquito larval control as a biological control agent.

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

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.45 no.3 s.144
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• pp.357-362
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• 2006

Bacillus thuringiensis strains were isolated from the domestic soil and a strain was selected that had a new host range and high toxicity against agriculture insect pest. The 142 samples of soil were sampled from the mountains, paddy fields and patches, in Daejon, Chungnam, Chungbuk and Jeonbuk and used for the investigation. Sixteen B. t strains were isolated from 12 samples among collected samples. There were 11 strains that showed toxical activity on Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae), 7 steins on Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), 5 strains on Arete coerulea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), 5 strains on Culex pipiens pallens (Diptera: Culicidae) among the 16 isolated B. t strains. But there were not any strains that showed activity against Hyphanria cunea (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae) and Sitophilus oryzae (Coleoptera: Rhynchophoridae). And also some of B. thuringiensis strains showed insecticidal activity with 2, 3 or 4 kinds of insects. But there were also 3 strains that did not show any activities to the 6 insects which were used in the experiment. When examined with a phase-contrast microscope, the insecticidal crystal protein produced from 16 selected strains had 13 bipyramidal and 3 spherical shapes. The insecticidal bioactivity of the S. litura showed 100% mortality when there were $1.3{\times}10^{7}\;(cfu/ml)$ of CAB109 isolates.

• Korean journal of applied entomology
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2008

Bacillus thuringiensis with selected high toxicities against tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura were isolated from domestic soils. When being observed under a phase-contrast microscope, the insecticidal crystal proteins were showed a bipyramidal crystal types. New CAB 109 isolate was identified to B. thuringiensis subsp. aizawai in the H serotype. As a results of insecticidal activities between CAB 109 isolate and 3 existing ready-made products against 3rd larva of S. litura, CAB 109 isolate showed 100% mortality with spore concentration $(1.3{\times}10^7cfu/ml)$. It was a very high insecticidal activity compared with a existing ready-made B. t. products. $LD_{50}$ values of CAB 109 isolate was $9.78{\times}10^5,\;6.87{\times}10^6\;and\;1.83{\times}10^7cfu/ml$ spore concentration against 2nd, 3rd and 4th larva of S. litura, respectively. Unlike Plutella xylostella, S. litura was slowly died after application up to 7 days. The weight of S. litura larva applied with CAB 109 isolate were 6-7 times less than controlled group. Even though it didn't die, it did not grow into next larva. The result observed with scanning electron microscope was that CAB 109 isolate of B. t. aizawai formed a typical bipyramidal crystal protein type. Otherwise, when CAB 109 isolate was examined with SDS-PAGE and with trypsin, there was no difference between CAB 109 strain and ready-made products of B. thuringiensis.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Grassland and Forage Science
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 1995

This study was to investigate an effective biological control of forage diseases and provide a basic data and a model in improving variety of antagonistic bacteria, with growth promoting effect on forage, through cell fusion. The results obtained were summarized as follows; 1. The antagonistic himbacterium against soil-borne phathogenic fungi Fusarium oxysporum and Rhizoctonia solani was isolated from continuous cropping himsphere soil of forage, and its biological and physiological characteristics were investigated. This bacterium was identified as Bacillus subrilis and named BS 101. Another strain for cell fusion was Bacillus thur ingiensis ssp. kurstaki HD-I(BT 37669) with insecticidal crystal. 2. The auxotropic mutants of BS 101 and BT 37669 were derived after mutagenesis using N-methyl-N'nitro- Nitrosoguanidine(NTG) to give amino acid requirement marker. n e s e auxotropic mutants of BS 101 and BT 37669 were named BS 1013(his-) and BT 69(asp-), respectively. 3. The best protoplast requirement was obtained using DM 3 medium, containing 5% casamino acid, 1 M $MgCI_2$ and 2% bovine semm albumin, to give Fusant 3, 7 and 8. BT toxin gene was not identified with fusants by Southern blotting. However, SDS-PAGE analysis of strains showed various protein patterns among fusants. 4. From the dark culture experiment, growth of forage in inoculated soil with antagonistic bacteria was delayed than that of non-inoculated soil with antagonistic bacteria in each continuous cropping soil and in each sterilized soil. On the other hand, growth duration of forage was different between continuous cropping soil and sterilized soil. 5. Seed germination of Alfalfa, Italian ryegrass and Orchardgrass were significantly improved by inoculation of antagonistic bacteria(p< 0.05).