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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2006, p. 1766-1770, Vol. 72, No. 3
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.3.1766-1770.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Conjugal Transfer of a Toxin-Coding Megaplasmid from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis to Mosquitocidal Strains of Bacillus sphaericus

Katherine Gammon,1 Gareth W. Jones,1 Steven J. Hope,1 Cláudia M. F. de Oliveira,2 Lêda Regis,2 Maria Helena N. L. Silva Filha,2 Brian N. Dancer,1 and Colin Berry1*

Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3US, United Kingdom,1 Departamento de Entomologia, Centro de Pesquisas Aggeu Magalhães-FIOCRUZ, Av. Moraes Rêgo s/n, Recife PE 50670-420, Brazil2

Received 13 July 2005/ Accepted 12 December 2005

Both Bacillus sphaericus and Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis produce mosquitocidal toxins during sporulation and are extensively used in the field for control of mosquito populations. All the known toxins of the latter organism are known to be encoded on a large plasmid, pBtoxis. In an attempt to combine the best properties of the two bacteria, an erythromycin resistance-marked pBtoxis plasmid was transferred to B. sphaericus by a mating technique. The resulting transconjugant bacteria were significantly more toxic to Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and were able to overcome resistance to B. sphaericus in a resistant colony of Culex quinquefasciatus, apparently due to the production of Cry11A but not Cry4A or Cry4B. The stability of the plasmid in the B. sphaericus host was moderate during vegetative growth, but segregational instability was observed, which led to substantial rates of plasmid loss during sporulation.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Museum Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3US, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-29-2087-4508. Fax: 44-29-2087-4116. E-mail: Berry{at}cf.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2006, p. 1766-1770, Vol. 72, No. 3
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.3.1766-1770.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

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  • Stein, C., Jones, G. W., Chalmers, T., Berry, C. (2006). Transcriptional Analysis of the Toxin-Coding Plasmid pBtoxis from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis.. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72: 1771-1776 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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