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The Biology, Ecology and Taxonomy of Bacillus thuringiensis and Related Bacteria

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Bacillus thuringiensis and Lysinibacillus sphaericus

Abstract

Bacillus thuringiensis produces a range of specialized virulence factors that enable it to infect invertebrate hosts. Despite the level of interest in this species, there have been a number of controversies and disagreements regarding its ecological niche, how it kills its hosts and benefits from the production of Cry toxins and whether B. thuringiensis constitutes a real species that is a distinct member of the Bacillus cereus group. Hypotheses arguing that Bt is a soil saprophyte, a gut or plant commensal or a specialized pathogen are critically evaluated. Evidence supporting the specialized pathogen hypothesis includes proteomic and genomic studies revealing adaptations to lyse cells and exploit peptide-rich resources. Bt infects insects and reproduces effectively in the field without obvious epizootics and uses plants to vector inocula from soil to the phylloplane. Bt Cry toxins, and other virulence factors, can be treated as cooperative public goods. Cooperative production of virulence factors has implications for dose-response curves and understanding which ecological factors can select for the maintenance of virulence. Finally, the taxonomy of Bt and the phylogeny of the B. cereus group are discussed. The genetic and ecological variation within the B. cereus group is substantial and argues against lumping all members of this clade into one species; a revised nomenclature of the group is suggested that includes restricting the use of B. thuringiensis to a single clade that contains the vast majority of invertebrate-adapted isolates and revising the use of the cereus and anthracis epithets.

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  1. College of Life and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK

    Ben Raymond

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  1. Control Agro Bio Pesquisa e Defesa, Agropecuária Ltda, Porto Alegre, Brazil

    Lidia Mariana Fiuza

  2. Plant Protection Department, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Jaboticabal, Brazil

    Ricardo Antonio Polanczyk

  3. School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Neil Crickmore

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Raymond, B. (2017). The Biology, Ecology and Taxonomy of Bacillus thuringiensis and Related Bacteria. In: Fiuza, L., Polanczyk, R., Crickmore, N. (eds) Bacillus thuringiensis and Lysinibacillus sphaericus. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56678-8_2

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