title: Identification of a mosquitocidal toxin from Bacillus thuringiensis using mass spectrometry.
abstract: The Bacillus thuringiensis strain S2160-1 has previously been identified as being highly toxic to mosquito larvae and a viable alternative to strains currently used commercially to control these insects. A PCR approach had identified the presence of four putative insecticidal toxin genes (cry30Ea, cry30 Ga, cry50Ba and cry54Ba) in this strain, but did not identify the genes that encoding three of the main crystal toxin proteins of size 140 and 130 and 30 kDa. In this study we used mass spectrometry to identify the 130 kDa toxin as a rare Cry4 toxin (Cry4Cb3). The gene encoding this toxin was cloned and expressed and the toxin shown to have mosquitocidal activity against Culex quinquefasciatus.
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Tropical Animal and Plant Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, Hainan, China, drwfzhang@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wenfei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Crickmore
authors.forename: Zhongqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yiran
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jiangzhao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: Hongping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ruiping
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xuanjun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000737:chemistry*; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D001681:Biological Assay; D003465:Culex / Q000187:drug effects; D007306:Insecticides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000187:drug effects; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D008970:Molecular Weight; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D007306:Insecticides