Under glasshouse conditions, various cornstarches and adjuvants were examined as encapsulating agents in sprayable formulations for Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki Berliner. When these materials were suspended in water and tested for physical factors such as viscosity, clumping, and retention on plant surfaces, a range of responses was observed. All formulations tested had acceptable vis...

BACKGROUND Bacillus thuringiensis is the most successful biological control agent, however, studies so far have shown that B. thuringiensis is very sensitive to environmental factors such as soil moisture and pH. Ultraviolet light from the sun had been considered as the main limiting factor for its persistence in soil and it has recently been shown that the antagonism exerted by other native so...

Seven replication origins from resident plasmids of Bacillus thuringienis subsp. kurstaki HD263 and HD73 were cloned in Escherichia coli. Three of these replication origins, originating from plasmids of 43, 44, and 60 MDa, were used to construct a set of compatible shuttle vectors that exhibit structural and segregational stability in the Cry- strain B. thuringiensis HD73-26. These shuttle vect...

A fluorescent heteroduplex method was developed to assess the presence of 16S rRNA gene (rDNA) sequences from Bacillus anthracis and close relatives in PCR-amplified 16S rDNA sequence mixtures from environmental samples. The method uses a single-stranded, fluorescent DNA probe, 464 nucleotides in length, derived from a B. anthracis 16S rRNA gene. The probe contains a unique, engineered deletion...

Two new crystal protein genes, cry19A and orf2, isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. jegathesan were cloned and characterized. The cry19A gene encodes a 74.7-kDa protein, and the orf2 gene encodes a 60-kDa protein. Cry19A contains the five conserved blocks present in most B. thuringiensis delta-endotoxins. The ORF2 amino acid sequence is similar to that of the carboxy terminus of Cry4 pr...

Four sunflower accessions were compared with a susceptible check, hybrid '894', in the greenhouse to determine their resistance to the banded sunflower moth, Cochylis hospes Walsingham, and their interaction with Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner variety kurstaki. Antibiosis, expressed as lower larval weight, was detected in all of the accessions. In addition to being antibiotic, sunflower access...

Bacillus thuringiensis var. thuringiensis strain T01-328, isolated from Cubatão county (São Paulo State, Brazil), produces a soluble pesticide protein, Cry1Ia, during vegetative growth. Here, we report the 7.089-Mbp draft genome sequence, composed of a 5.5-Mb chromosome and 14 plasmids, which is the largest B. thuringiensis genome sequenced to date.

In order to determine if variations in rRNA sequence could be used for discrimination of the members of the Bacillus cereus group, we analyzed 183 16S rRNA and 74 23S rRNA sequences for all species in the B. cereus group. We also analyzed 30 gyrB sequences for B. cereus group strains with published 16S rRNA sequences. Our findings indicated that the three most common species of the B. cereus gr...

Flagellar antigen of Bacillus cereus H.1 was purified and tested for serodiagnostic antigen by ELISA. The antibody against the flagellar antigen of B. cereus H.1 reacted not only with the homologous specific antigen but also reacted with the flagellar antigens of 23 strains of B. cereus. This common flagellar antigen of B. cereus was found to be due to 61-kDa protein by SDS-PAGE and immunoblot ...

We report here the complete genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki strain HD-1, which serves as the primary U.S. reference standard for all commercial insecticidal formulations of B. thuringiensis manufactured around the world.