BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF MICROBIOLOGY, vol.47, no.3, pp.597-602, 2016 (SCI-Expanded)
In this study, the cry1Ab gene of previously characterized and Lepidoptera-, Diptera-, and Coleoptera-active Bacillus thuringiensis SY49-1 strain was cloned, expressed and individually tested on Ephestia kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) larvae. pET-cry1Ab plasmids were constructed by ligating the crylAb into pET28a (+) expression vector. Constructed plasmids were transferred to an Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) strain rendered competent with CaCl2. Isopropyl beta-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside was used to induce the expression of cry1Ab in E. coli BL21(DE3), and consequently, similar to 130 kDa of Cry1Ab was obtained. Bioassay results indicated that recombinant Cry1Ab at a dose of 1000 mu g g(-1) caused 40% and 64% mortality on P. interpunctella and E. kuehniella larvae, respectively. However, the mortality rates of Bt SY49-1 strains' spore-crystal mixture at the same dose were observed to be 70% on P. interpunctella and 90% on E. kuehniella larvae. The results indicated that crylAb may be considered as a good candidate in transgenic crop production and as an alternative biocontrol agent in controlling stored product moths. (C) 2016 Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license