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Appl. Environ. Microbiol., Mar 1997, 1054-1057, Vol 63, No. 3
SI Asano, Y Nukumizu, H Bando, T Iizuka and T Yamamoto
A novel enterotoxin gene was cloned from Bacillus cereus FM1, and its
nucleotide sequence was determined. Previously, a 45-kDa protein causing
characteristic enterotoxin symptoms in higher animals had been isolated (K.
Shinagawa, p. 181-193, in A. E. Pohland et al., ed., Microbial Toxins in
Foods and Feeds, 1990) from the same B. cereus strain, but no report of
cloning of the enterotoxin gene has been published. In the present study, a
specific antibody to the purified enterotoxin was produced and used to
screen the genomic library of B. cereus FM1 made with the lambda gt11
vector. An immunologically positive clone was found to contain the full
protein-coding region and some 5' and 3' flanking regions. The deduced
amino acid sequence of the cloned gene indicated that the protein is rich
in beta structures and contains some unusual sequences, such as consecutive
Asn residues. In order to clone enterotoxin genes from Bacillus
thuringiensis, two PCR primers were synthesized based on the nucleotide
sequence of the B. cereus gene. These primers were designed to amplify the
full protein- coding region. PCR conducted with DNA preparations from the
B. thuringiensis subsp. sotto and B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis
strains successfully amplified a segment of DNA with a size almost
identical to that of the protein-coding region of the B. cereus
enterotoxin. Nucleotide sequences of the amplified DNA segments showed that
these B. thuringiensis strains contain an enterotoxin gene very similar to
that of B. cereus. Further PCR screening of additional B. thuringiensis
strains with four primer pairs in one reaction revealed that some
additional B. thuringiensis strains contain enterotoxin-like genes.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
Cloning of novel enterotoxin genes from Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis
Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan.
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