Extremely high frequency of common flagellar antigens between Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus

Shisa, Noriko

doi:10.1016/s0378-1097(02)00786-3

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…It has been known for at least a decade that B. thuringiensis and B. cereus share an extremely high frequency of common flagellar antigens (9,18). Whether these B. cereus strains were derived from their respective neighboring B. thuringiensis strains, or conversely, or perhaps from another related strain not included here, or a more ancient one, or whether they have always been B. cereus strains is unknown and a challenging question worthy of further investigation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Sequence Diversity of theBacillus thuringiensisandB. cereusSensu Lato Flagellin (H Antigen) Protein: Comparison with H Serotype Diversity

Côté

2006

Appl Environ Microbiol

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We set out to analyze the sequence diversity of the Bacillus thuringiensis flagellin (H antigen [Hag]) protein and compare it with H serotype diversity. Some other Bacillus cereus sensu lato species and strains were added for comparison. The internal sequences of the flagellin (hag) alleles from 80 Bacillus thuringiensis strains and 16 strains from the B. cereus sensu lato group were amplified and cloned, and their nucleotide sequences were determined and translated into amino acids. The flagellin allele nucleotide sequences for 10 additional strains were retrieved from GenBank for a total of 106 Bacillus species and strains used in this study. These included 82 B. thuringiensis strains from 67 H serotypes, 5 B. cereus strains, 3 Bacillus anthracis strains, 3 Bacillus mycoides strains, 11 Bacillus weihenstephanensis strains, 1 Bacillus halodurans strain, and 1 Bacillus subtilis strain. The first 111 and the last 66 amino acids were conserved. They were referred to as the C1 and C2 regions, respectively. The central region, however, was highly variable and is referred to as the V region. Two bootstrapped neighbor-joining trees were generated: a first one from the alignment of the translated amino acid sequences of the amplified internal sequences of the hag alleles and a second one from the alignment of the V region amino acid sequences, respectively. Of the eight clusters revealed in the tree inferred from the entire C1-V-C2 region amino acid sequences, seven were present in corresponding clusters in the tree inferred from the V region amino acid sequences. With regard to B. thuringiensis, in most cases, different serovars had different flagellin amino acid sequences, as might have been expected. Surprisingly, however, some different B. thuringiensis serovars shared identical flagellin amino acid sequences. Likewise, serovars from the same H serotypes were most often found clustered together, with exceptions. Indeed, some serovars from the same H serotype carried flagellins with sufficiently different amino acid sequences as to be located on distant clusters. Species-wise, B. halodurans, B. subtilis, and B. anthracis formed specific branches, whereas the other four species, all in the B. cereus sensu lato group, B. mycoides, B. weihenstephanensis, B. cereus, and B. thuringiensis, did not form four specific clusters as might have been expected. Rather, strains from any of these four species were placed side by side with strains from the other species. In the B. cereus sensu lato group, B. anthracis excepted, the distribution of strains was not species specific.Bacillus thuringiensis is a gram-positive, rod-shaped, sporulating bacterium characterized at the species level by the production of a parasporal inclusion, the "crystal," upon sporulation (2). Some B. thuringiensis strains have been shown to exhibit specific insecticidal activity against lepidopteran, dipteran, or coleopteran insect pests (6) and have been developed as biological insecticides (5). The commercial success of B. thuringiensis as a biological ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Sequence Diversity of theBacillus thuringiensisandB. cereusSensu Lato Flagellin (H Antigen) Protein: Comparison with H Serotype Diversity

Côté

2006

Appl Environ Microbiol

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“…Although the traditional method for differentiating between B. cereus and B. thuringiensis has been to microscopically examine sporulating cells for the presence of toxin crystals, it is regarded as too narrow a criterion for taxonomic purposes [23] and the subjective nature of the test precluded its use here. Furthermore, there has been evidence that not all isolates with insecticidal activity produce visible crystal inclusions [24] and isolates without visible crystal inclusions can test positive for cry genes [25]. As a result, PCR was used to assess the presence of a selection of the most common toxin genes in our collection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial variation in Bacillus thuringiensis/cereus populations within the phyllosphere of broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) and surrounding habitats

Collier

Elliot

Ellis

2005

FEMS Microbiology Ecology

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The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and toxin gene diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis/B. cereus in the phyllosphere of broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) at a small spatial scale. B. thuringiensis/cereus populations were isolated from the phyllosphere of dock and neighbouring grass and in neighbouring soil using commercially available selective media which avoided the disadvantageous heat-shock selection procedure. The maximum density of B. thuringiensis/cereus in the dock phyllosphere was 1.9 x 10(4) CFU g(-1) but the between-leaf variation in numbers was found to follow a lognormal distribution. B. thuringiensis/cereus was also found at significant densities in soil and the phyllosphere of grass adjacent to the dock plants. PCR screening indicated that genes encoding cry1 toxin were present in the plasmids of 36.9% of B. thuringiensis/cereus isolates tested, 11.9% contained cry2, and none of the dock leaf isolates tested contained cry3, cry4, cry7 or cry8 genes. The diversity of cry genes is similar to that found from other studies focused on other parts of the world. This work is the first concerning the prevalence of B. thuringiensis/cereus on leaves in the UK, finding population sizes of previously unrecorded levels and a greater relative proportion of B. thuringiensis. We have also illustrated that before any ecological function can be investigated, suitable sampling scales need to be considered -- here we have shown that the minimum sampling unit should be individual leaves, to account for the log-normal distribution.

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“…H agglutination tests were done with reference H antisera against 55 H-serotypes of B. thuringiensis as described previously (Shisa et al 2002). H antisera were raised in rabbits according to the method of Ohba and Aizawa (1978).…”

Section: Flagellar (H) Serotyping and Microscopymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ubiquity of parasporin-1 producers in Bacillus thuringiensis natural populations of Japan

Uemori

Maëda²,

Yasutake

et al. 2006

Naturwissenschaften

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Parasporin, a Bacillus thuringiensis parasporal protein, is unique in having a strong cytocidal activity preferential for human cancer cells. In this study, we characterized parasporin activities associated with three novel geographical isolates of B. thuringiensis. Parasporal inclusion proteins of the three isolates were highly toxic to human uterus cervix cancer cells (HeLa), but not to non-cancer uterine smooth muscle cells (UtSMC). Inclusions of the isolates lacked insect toxicity and hemolytic activity against sheep erythrocytes. Ouchterlony immunodiffusion tests revealed that the proteins of the three isolates are immunologically closely related to parasporin-1 (Cry31A), but dissimilar to the three other existing parasporin groups. Our results provide evidence that the parasporin-1-producing organism is a common member in B. thuringiensis populations occurring in natural environments of Japan.

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Extremely high frequency of common flagellar antigens between Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus

Cited by 7 publications

References 16 publications

Sequence Diversity of theBacillus thuringiensisandB. cereusSensu Lato Flagellin (H Antigen) Protein: Comparison with H Serotype Diversity

Sequence Diversity of theBacillus thuringiensisandB. cereusSensu Lato Flagellin (H Antigen) Protein: Comparison with H Serotype Diversity

Spatial variation in Bacillus thuringiensis/cereus populations within the phyllosphere of broad-leaved dock (Rumex obtusifolius) and surrounding habitats

Ubiquity of parasporin-1 producers in Bacillus thuringiensis natural populations of Japan

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