• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.390-396
• /
• 1995

Bacillus sphaericus 1593 is a larvicidal toxin-producing mosquitocidal bacterium. The toxin contains a parasporal crystalline inclusion which is composed of a protein that is activated under alkaline condition. To enhance alkaline environment around toxin protein, cryptic plasmid cured, B. sphaericus 1593 was transformed by the Bacillus pasteurii urease gene which generate ammonia from urea. Transformant produced urease at about 80% more than wild type strain. B. sphaericus 1593, and the urease gene was stably maintained. It also produced crystalline toxin protein at the same level as the wild type strain B. sphaericus 1593.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.389-392
• /
• 1988

A clone pSL 2-1, which is a recombinant plasmid believed to contain the mosquitocidal crystal-line protein gene of the Bacillus sphaericus 1593, was expressed in Escherichia coli JM83 and the product of the clone was purified and identified. The unsolubilized mosquitocidal crystal proteins from the B. sphaericus had formed 43, 58, 64, 100, 113, and 130 Kd bands in the SDS-polyacrylamide gel, but the NaOH-solublized proteins at pH 12 formed 2 protein bands of 43- and 64Kd in the gel because the larger protein (precursor) bands were cleaved. The products of the pSL 2-1 clone was purified by Sephadex G-200 and only the fractions having lethal activity to the 3rd in-star larvae of mosquito Culex pipiens were analyzed by the gel. The only single protein band of 42 Kd toxic to the larvae was formed. The major toxic protein being produced from the B. sphaericus 1593 and the pSL 2-1 clone was found to be the 42 Kd.