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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 956-961, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02079-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization of Chimeric Bacillus thuringiensis Vip3 Toxins{triangledown}

Jun Fang,1 Xiaoli Xu,1 Ping Wang,2 Jian-Zhou Zhao,2 Anthony M. Shelton,2 Jiaan Cheng,1 Ming-Guang Feng,3 and Zhicheng Shen1*

Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology,1 Institute of Microbiology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China,3 Department of Entomology, Cornell University, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, New York 144562

Received 3 September 2006/ Accepted 13 November 2006

Bacillus thuringiensis vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vip) are potential alternatives for B. thuringiensis endotoxins that are currently utilized in commercial transgenic insect-resistant crops. Screening a large number of B. thuringiensis isolates resulted in the cloning of vip3Ac1. Vip3Ac1 showed high insecticidal activity against the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda and the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa zea but very low activity against the silkworm Bombyx mori. The host specificity of this Vip3 toxin was altered by sequence swapping with a previously identified toxin, Vip3Aa1. While both Vip3Aa1 and Vip3Ac1 showed no detectable toxicity against the European corn borer Ostrinia nubilalis, the chimeric protein Vip3AcAa, consisting of the N-terminal region of Vip3Ac1 and the C-terminal region of Vip3Aa1, became insecticidal to the European corn borer. In addition, the chimeric Vip3AcAa had increased toxicity to the fall armyworm. Furthermore, both Vip3Ac1 and Vip3AcAa are highly insecticidal to a strain of cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) that is highly resistant to the B. thuringiensis endotoxin Cry1Ac, thus experimentally showing for the first time the lack of cross-resistance between B. thuringiensis Cry1A proteins and Vip3A toxins. The results in this study demonstrated that vip3Ac1 and its chimeric vip3 genes can be excellent candidates for engineering a new generation of transgenic plants for insect pest control.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Insect Sciences, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, China. Phone and fax: 86-571-86971273. E-mail: zcshen{at}zju.edu.cn.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 22 November 2006.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2007, p. 956-961, Vol. 73, No. 3
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.02079-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Gatehouse, J. A. (2008). Biotechnological Prospects for Engineering Insect-Resistant Plants. Plant Physiol. 146: 881-887 [Full Text]  


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