title: Efficient constitutive expression of chitinase in the mother cell of Bacillus thuringiensis and its potential to enhance the toxicity of Cry1Ac protoxin.
abstract: Previous studies revealed that chitinase could enhance the insecticidal activity of Bacillus thuringiensis and it has been used in combination with B. thuringiensis widely. However, the expression of B. thuringiensis chitinase is rather low and needs induction by chitin, which limits its field application. It would make sense to constitutively express the chitinase at a sufficiently high level to offer advantages in biological control of pests. In this study, a signal peptide-encoding sequence-deleted chitinase gene from B. thuringiensis strain 4.0718 under the control of dual overlapping promoters plus Shine-Dalgarno sequence and terminator sequence of cry1Ac3 gene was cloned into shuttle vector pHT315 and introduced into an acrystalliferous B. thuringiensis strain Cry(-)B. The recombinant plasmid was stably maintained over 240 generations in Cry(-)B. Chitinase was overexpressed within the sporangial mother cells in the form of spherical crystal-like inclusion bodies. The chitinase inclusions could be solubilized and exhibit chitinolytic activity in 30 mmol l(-1) Na(2)CO(3)-0.2% beta-mercaptoethanol buffer at a wide range of alkaline pH values, and what's more, the chitinase inclusions potentiated the insecticidal effect of Cry1Ac protoxin when used against larvae of Spodoptera exigua and Helicoverpa armigera.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Key Laboratory of Microbial Molecular Biology of Hunan Province, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China.
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: X Z
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Y J
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L Q
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000633:toxicity*; D002688:Chitinases / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000633:toxicity*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins / Q000633:toxicity*; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000187:drug effects; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D018411:Spodoptera / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004731:Endotoxins; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; C030956:insecticidal crystal protein, Bacillus Thuringiensis; D002688:Chitinases