Identification and characterization of the insecticidal toxin "makes caterpillars floppy" in Photorhabdus temperata M1021 using a cosmid library.

ABSTRACT: Photorhabdus temperata is an entomopathogenic enterobacterium; it is a nematode symbiont that possesses pathogenicity islands involved in insect virulence. Herein, we constructed a P. temperata M1021 cosmid library in Escherichia coli XL1-Blue MRF` and obtained 7.14 × 105 clones. However, only 1020 physiologically active clones were screened for insect virulence factors by injection of each E. coli cosmid clone into Galleria mellonella and Tenebrio molitor larvae. A single cosmid clone, PtC1015, was consequently selected due to its characteristic virulent properties, e.g., loss of body turgor followed by death of larvae when the clone was injected into the hemocoel. The sequence alignment against the available sequences in Swiss-Prot and NCBI databases, confirmed the presence of the mcf ge

SUBMITTER: Ullah I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4113739 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature