Genome sequence of mosquitocidal native Bacillus thuringiensis strain from Argentina

LAZARTE, JN; BERÓN, C; LOPEZ RP

San Diego

Congreso; International Congress on Invertebrate Pathology and Microbial Controland the 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology (Golden Jubilee); 2017

UC San Diego

Bacterial insecticides have been used for the control of insects of public health importance. Mosquito-borne diseases are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in humans. For the control of these viral and parasitic diseases the continuous development of different management strategies of mosquito populations is essential. In a previous work, we characterized an Argentinian Bacillus thuringiensis strain (FCC 41) that exhibited mosquitocidal activity against Aedes aegypti, Aedes (Ochlerotatus) albifasciatus, Culex pipiens and Culex apicinus. In this work, we conducted the whole genome sequencing of B. thuringiensis native strain using next generation sequencing on an Illumina 1500 HiSeq. The paired short reads were assembled with SPADES, and a preliminary annotation was obtained using PROKKA. Furthermore, we identified Cry proteins coding sequences (CDS) using a HMMER search. With this approach we found 10 positive matches: these CDS were identified as two Cry4-like, two Cry19-like with their corresponding downstream Orf2 regions, a Cry24Ca with its Orf2, a Parasporin 3-like, and three contiguous small CDS within the same operon with homology to domains of several Cry proteins. The next step will be to clone and express these cry-like nucleotide sequences in heterologous systems to determine their specific toxicological activity and potential application against vector insects of public health importance. Besides, we will analyze Orf2-like regions in order to determine their function in the crystallization and/or stability of Cry toxins.