Article
Zoology
Ruchir Mishra, Arinder K. Arora, Jaime Jimenez, Clebson dos Santos Tavares, Rahul Banerjee, Suresh Panneerselvam, Bryony C. Bonning
Summary: Hemipteran pests pose a significant threat to agricultural production due to their feeding damage and transmission of plant pathogens. However, the identification and development of pesticidal proteins specific to hemipteran species have been limited. This comprehensive review examines the unique physiological features of Hemiptera, provides an overview of pesticidal proteins active against hemipteran pests, and summarizes biotechnological strategies to enhance their toxicity.
JOURNAL OF INVERTEBRATE PATHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Abdul Aziz Karim, Abeer Babiker Idris, Semih Yilmaz
Summary: This study aimed to analyze the trends and hotspots of global research on Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) pesticidal toxins from a scientometric perspective. It extracted 5757 publications on Bt pesticidal toxins and analyzed journal contributions, subject categories, country and institution contributions, highly influential references, and author keywords. The study found a focus on the evolution of insect resistance against Bt toxins in recent years. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the research on Bt pesticidal toxins.
Article
Microbiology
Sabino Pacheco, Isabel Gomez, Marcos Chinas, Jorge Sanchez, Mario Soberon, Alejandra Bravo
Summary: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are soil bacteria that produce insecticidal proteins used for pest control. Genomic characterization of Bt strains provides valuable pesticidal protein resources with potential biotechnological applications. The sequenced Bt GR007 strain contains multiple genes coding for pesticidal proteins and virulent factors, which show differential toxicity against different insect larvae.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Rania Jabeur, Virginie Guyon, Szabolcs Toth, Adriano E. Pereira, Man P. Huynh, Zakia Selmani, Erin Boland, Mickael Bosio, Laurent Beuf, Pete Clark, David Vallenet, Wafa Achouak, Carine Audiffrin, Francois Torney, Wyatt Paul, Thierry Heulin, Bruce E. Hibbard, Stefan Toepfer, Christophe Sallaud
Summary: This study reports the discovery of a new family of binary pesticidal proteins from several Chryseobacterium species. These proteins, called GDI0005A and GDI0006A, can prevent growth and increase mortality of western corn rootworm larvae, suggesting a new mode of action. This finding paves the way for the development of novel biological or biotechnological management solutions against rootworms.
Article
Microbiology
Xiaoyu Lei, Fengjuan Zhang, Jiang Zhang
Summary: The contribution of gut microbiota to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry3Bb insecticidal activity in a leaf beetle was demonstrated using transplastomic poplar plants, providing a potential new approach to improve the efficiency of plastid transformation technology for pest control by expression of Bt toxins.
MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Jeffrey Chicca, Nicholas R. Cazeault, Florentina Rus, Ambily Abraham, Carli Garceau, Hanchen Li, Samar M. Atwa, Kelly Flanagan, Ernesto R. Soto, Mary S. Morrison, David Gazzola, Yan Hu, David R. Liu, Martin K. Nielsen, Joseph F. Urban, Gary R. Ostroff, Raffi V. Aroian
Summary: This study presents scalable and practical methods for large-scale purification of potent bioactive Bacillus thuringiensis crystals and crystal proteins. The resulting product, purified cytosolic crystals (PCC), is highly compatible with ingestible drug delivery and formulation. These methods will find great utility in agriculture and insect control where access to large quantities of purified crystal proteins is desirable.
MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Theju Jacob, Theodore W. Kahn
Summary: Researchers propose a deep learning model to identify pore-forming proteins, which has the ability to discover novel pore-formers without sequence similarity.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Joseph F. Urban, Martin K. Nielsen, David Gazzola, Yue Xie, Ethiopia Beshah, Yan Hu, Hanchen Li, Florentina Rus, Kelly Flanagan, Austin Draper, Sridhar Vakalapudi, Robert W. Li, Gary R. Ostroff, Raffi Aroian
Summary: Ascaris and Parascaris, important parasites in the family Ascarididae, are becoming increasingly drug-resistant in both veterinary and human medicine. The paraprobiotic IBaCC showed significant therapeutic potential against these parasites, providing a new approach for their treatment.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Ruchir Mishra, Ravishankar Narayana, Freddy Ibanez, Diann Achor, Turksen Shilts, Choaa El-Mohtar, Vladimir Orbovic, Lukasz L. Stelinski, Bryony C. Bonning
Summary: Pesticidal proteins derived from bacteria are useful for managing agricultural insect pests and provide an alternative to chemical insecticides. However, they have been rarely used for suppressing sap-sucking insects like the Asian citrus psyllid. This study investigates the potential use of a bacterial pesticidal protein, Mpp51Aa1, in transgenic citrus plants.
APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Hualin Liu, Jinshui Zheng, Dexin Bo, Yun Yu, Weixing Ye, Donghai Peng, Ming Sun
Summary: Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin genes have been widely utilized in genetically modified crops for pest control. The web-based tool BtToxin_Digger efficiently mines toxin genes from large-scale sequence data, enabling accurate prediction and downstream analysis and testing. This versatile tool can also be used to mine other targeting genes from genome and metagenome data with database replacement.
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Zirong Zhu, Wenhui Chen, Hongbo Zhou, Haina Cheng, Sisi Luo, Kexuan Zhou, Pengji Zhou, Liqiu Xia, Xuezhi Ding
Summary: A high production mutated strain BtX023PN was screened and its virulence against pests was significantly increased. BtX023PN grows faster than the wild strain, but has reduced sporulation ability. The production of Cry1Ac protein is significantly increased.
APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alexander Arsov, Maria Gerginova, Tsvetelina Paunova-Krasteva, Kaloyan Petrov, Penka Petrova
Summary: This study aimed to classify Bacillus thuringiensis strains for broad-spectrum pest control. Twenty strains were isolated from Bulgarian soil, with seven strains containing cry genes. Scanning electron microscopy revealed different crystal shapes produced by these strains. B. thuringiensis serovar galleriae BTG contained the most cry genes. Whole-genome sequencing and annotation of the BTG strain demonstrated its high potential for broad-spectrum insecticide development.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Kavita Nair, Roda Al-Thani, Samir Jaoua
Summary: The study found that the altered genes cry10A and cyt1C in the Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis (Bti) strain QBT220, which led to the structural instability of plasmid pBtoxis, did not affect its higher insecticidal activity, indicating that these two genes are not essential for Bti's insecticidal activity. In addition, the increased synthesis of 6-endotoxins per cell in QBT220 makes it a potential strain for industrial production of bioinsecticides.
ECOTOXICOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY
(2021)
Article
Entomology
Sheng-Kai Cao, Xing-Xing Du, Gong Chen, Ai-Ping Zeng, Huan Yu
Summary: This study aimed to identify novel bacterial strains effective in controlling Spodoptera exigua Hubner, Helicoverpa armigera Hubner, and Spodoptera litura Fabricius. Fifteen culturable bacterial strains were isolated from 60 dead larvae collected in the field. The results showed that 12 strains belonged to Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki with high toxicity, and one strain was Lysinibacillus sp. with good toxicity potential. These strains are expected to play an important role in the development of biological pesticides.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Food Science & Technology
Hannah L. Best, Lainey J. Williamson, Magdalena Lipka-Lloyd, Helen Waller-Evans, Emyr Lloyd-Evans, Pierre J. Rizkallah, Colin Berry
Summary: Tpp80Aa1 from Bacillus thuringiensis is a toxin protein that shows activity against Culex mosquitoes, as well as larvae of Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. The crystal structure of Tpp80Aa1 reveals its two domains, resembling ricin B lectin and aerolysin family, and its binding to the midgut of mosquitoes. The interaction with galactose-containing glycolipids and galactose is crucial for its insecticidal action.