title: Diversity and differential distribution of IS231, IS232 and IS240 among Bacillus cereus, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus mycoides.
abstract: Bacillus cereus, Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus mycoides are very closely related bacteria, generally considered as subspecies of B. cereus sensu lato. Different transposable elements have been isolated from B. thuringiensis, including IS231, IS232 and IS240 and their variants. The distribution of these three insertion sequences (IS) within the B. cereus group has been investigated in 90 strains of B. thuringiensis (representing 61 serovars), in 30 reference strains of B. cereus and in 33 strains of B. mycoides. Since these IS elements are delimited by well-conserved and specific inverted repeats, the use of primers corresponding to these ends allowed their amplification by PCR. The results showed that IS231 is the most abundant element in the three taxa, whereas IS232 is apparently exclusively associated with B. thuringiensis. Hybridization and Dral RFLP analysis of the PCR products confirmed and extended knowledge of the heterogeneity previously observed among iso-IS231 elements. Moreover, a similar diversity was observed among iso-IS240 elements. This contrasted with the relative homogeneity displayed by iso-IS232 elements. No specific association appeared to exist between any particular iso-element and a specific strain or serotype.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génétique Microbienne, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 5/12, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Léonard
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Peoples' Republic of China.|Laboratoire de Génétique Microbienne, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 5/12, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yahua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Génétique Microbienne, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Croix du Sud 5/12, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mahillon
mesh_terms: D001407:Bacillus / Q000235:genetics*; D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000235:genetics*; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000235:genetics*; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D005111:Extrachromosomal Inheritance; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012015:Reference Standards; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D012703:Serotyping; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements