Characterization of Bacillus thuringiensis collection from Argentina

BERÓN, C.M.; SALERNO, G. L.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Simposio; V Simposio de REDBIO 2002; 2002

REDBIO

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) is a spore-forming bacterium producing upon sporulation a parasporal crystal (Cry proteins) toxic to some invertebrates, mostly insects and nematodes. Notwithstanding the variability of Cry proteins described up to now, it is still necessary to search for more toxins, since a significant number of pest are not controlled with the available Cry proteins. It is also important to provide alternatives for coping with the problem of insect resistance, especially with regard to the expression of Bt genes encoding insecticidal proteins in transgenic plants. Several Bt collections have been described, strains from different countries, of Europe, Asia and Africa and of New Zealand and of the United States. South America Bt strains are present in one of those collections being 5% of the isolates. The only Bt collection reported in Latin America comes from Mexico. In this work we present the morphological, biochemical, toxicological and molecular characterization of an Argentinean Bt strain collection from FIBA – Mar del Plata.