title: Division of labour and terminal differentiation in a novel Bacillus thuringiensis strain.
abstract: A major challenge in bacterial developmental biology has been to understand the mechanisms underlying cell fate decisions. Some differentiated cell types display cooperative behaviour. Cooperation is one of the greatest mysteries of evolutionary biology and microbes have been considered as an excellent system for experimentally testing evolution theories. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a spore-forming bacterium, which is genetically closely related to B. anthracis, the agent of anthrax, and to B. cereus, an opportunistic human pathogen. The defining feature that distinguishes Bt from its relatives is its ability to produce crystal inclusions in the sporulating cells. These toxins are solubilized after ingestion and are cooperative public goods in insect hosts. In this study, we describe a Bt strain LM1212 that presents the unique ability to terminally differentiate into crystal producers and spore formers. Transcriptional analysis based on lacZ and gfp reporter genes suggested that this phenotype is the consequence of a new type of cell differentiation associated with a novel regulation mode of cry gene expression. The differentiating crystal-producer phenotype has higher spore productivity than a typical Bt strain and is better able to compete with Cry toxin null 'cheaters'. Potentially, this division of labour provides additional fitness benefits in terms of spore viability or durability of Cry toxin.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China [2] INRA, UMR1319 Micalis, La Minière, 78280 Guyancourt, France [3] AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR1319 Micalis, La Minière, 78280 Guyancourt, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Leyla
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Slamti
authors.affiliation: Department of Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus, Imperial College London, Ascot SL57PY, UK.
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Raymond
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guiming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR1319 Micalis, La Minière, 78280 Guyancourt, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Christelle
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lemy
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, CNRS URA 2172, Unité de Biologie des Bactéries Pathogènes à Gram positif, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gominet
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jingni
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Hengliang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] INRA, UMR1319 Micalis, La Minière, 78280 Guyancourt, France [2] AgroParisTech, UMR Micalis, F-78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lereclus
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Biology of Plant Diseases and Insect Pests, Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fuping
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Song
mesh_terms: D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000166:cytology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D010641:Phenotype; D013171:Spores, Bacterial / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D000083722:Bacillus thuringiensis Toxins; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D004731:Endotoxins; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins; C030956:insecticidal crystal protein, Bacillus Thuringiensis
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