Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis are members of the Bacillus cereus group of bacteria, demonstrating widely different phenotypes and pathological effects. B. anthracis causes the acute fatal disease anthrax and is a potential biological weapon due to its high toxicity. B. thuringiensis produces intracellular protein crystals toxic to a wide number of insect larvae...

Selection with Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki, which contains CryIA and CryII toxins, caused a >200-fold cross-resistance to CryIF toxin from B. thuringiensis subsp. aizawai in the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella. CryIE was not toxic, but CryIB was highly toxic to both selected and unselected larvae. The results show that extremely high levels of cross-resistance can be conferred ...

Novel variants of Bacillus thuringiensis were isolated from the phylloplane of deciduous and conifer trees as well as of other plants. These isolates displayed a range of toxicity towards Trichoplusia ni. Immunoblot and toxin protein analysis indicate that these strains included representatives of the three principal B. thuringiensis pathotypes active against larvae of the orders Lepidoptera, D...

Crystalline inclusion bodies resembling those seen in Clostridium cochlearium were detected in cultures of Bacillus thuringiensis infected with bacteriophage.

The previous report1) on spores of Bacillus moritai described that even when massive quantities of the spores were given orally to mice, these were not detectable in the blood. Whether or not a long-term feeding test also gives similar results was re-examined, as Stuart2) reported that Bacillus thuringiensis invaded various tissues of mice when fed a diet containing the spores, although rapid c...

Protein profiles of crystal delta-endotoxins were determined in twenty nine Bacillus thuringiensis strains-soil and phylloplane isolates--from Poland. Electrophoretic analysis revealed quantatively and qualitatively different patterns of delta-endotoxin crystal preparations of these B. thuringiensis strains. The crystalline parasporal inclusions of B. thuringiensis isolates were composed of two...

Twenty-five field isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis from the Lower Silesia region of Poland, the Osola plain, and phylloplane niches and soil samples from the Karkonosze National Park were tested for insecticidal activity against larvae of the dipterans Aedes aegypti, Drosophila melanogaster and Musca domestica. The spore-crystal mixture of B. thuringiensis finitimus (soil isolate) killed near...

We report the draft genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis strain LM1212, which differentiates into crystal producers or spore formers during the stationary phase. Availability of this genome sequence will facilitate the study of spore formation, crystal formation, cell differentiation, and evolution of B. thuringiensis.

Three species of Bacillus were evaluated as potential surrogates for Bacillus anthracis for determining the sporicidal activity of chlorination as commonly used in drinking water treatment. Spores of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis were found to be an appropriate surrogate for spores of B. anthracis for use in chlorine inactivation studies.

Studies were conducted on the enhancement of pathogenicity of Bacillus thuringiensis by 1% boric acid against various species of termites. The increase in virulence of Serratia marcescens by 1% Potassium chloride or 1% Sodium citrate against the workers of M. championi has also been established. The increase in virulence is confirmed by the enhancement ratios, which are ranging from about 1.5 t...