Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Parasporin-2Ab, a Newly Isolated Cytotoxic Crystal Protein from Bacillus thuringiensis

  • Published:
Current Microbiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A novel crystal protein that exhibited potent cytotoxicity against human leukemic T-cells was cloned from the Bacillus thuringiensis TK-E6 strain. The protein, designated as parasporin-2Ab (PS2Ab), was a polypeptide of 304 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular weight of 33,017. The deduced amino acid sequence of PS2Ab showed significant homology (84% identitiy) to parasporin-2Aa (PS2Aa) from the B. thuringiensis A1547 strain. Upon processing of PS2Ab with proteinase K, the active form of 29 kDa was produced. The activated PS2Ab showed potent cytotoxicity against MOLT-4 and Jurkat cells and the EC50 values were estimated as 0.545 and 0.745 ng/mL, respectively. The cytotoxicity of PS2Ab was significantly higher than that of PS2Aa reported elsewhere. Although both cytotoxins were structurally related, it was thought that the minor differences found were responsible for the different cytotoxicities of PS2Ab and PS2Aa.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  1. Altschul SF, Gish W, Miller W, Myers EW, Lipman DJ (1990) Basic local alignment search tool. J Mol Biol 215:403–410

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Amano H, Yamagiwa M, Akao T, Mizuki E, Ohba M, Sakai H (2005) A novel 29-kDa crystal protein from Bacillus thuringiensis induces caspase activation and cell death of Jurkat T cells. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 69:2063–2072

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Berry C, O’Neil S, Ben-Dov E, et al. (2002) Complete sequence and organization of pBtoxis, the toxin-coding plasmid of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. Appl Environ Microbiol 68:5082–5095

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Crickmore N, Zeigler DR, Feitelson J, et al. (1998) Revision of the nomenclature for the Bacillus thuringiensis pesticidal crystal proteins. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 62:807–813

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hastowo S, Lay BW, Ohba M (1992) Naturally occurring Bacillus thuringiensis in Indonesia. J Appl Bacteriol 73:108–113

    Google Scholar 

  6. Höfte H, Whiteley HR (1989) Insecticidal crystal proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis. Microbiol Rev 53:242–255

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Ito A, Sasaguri Y, Kitada S, Kusaka Y, et al. (2004) A Bacillus thuringiensis crystal protein with selective cytocidal action to human cells. J Biol Chem 279:21,282–21,286

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee DW, Akao T, Yamashita S, et al. (2000) Noninsecticidal parasporal proteins of a Bacillus thuringiensis serovar shandongiensis isolate exhibit a preferential cytotoxicity against human leukemic T cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 272:218–223

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Meadows MP, Ellis DJ, Butt J, Jarrett P, Burges HD (1992) Distribution, frequency, and diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis in an animal feed mill. Appl Environ Microbiol 58:1344–1350

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Mizuki E, Ohba M, Akao T, Yamashita S, Saitoh H, Park YS (1999) Unique activity associated with non-insecticidal Bacillus thuringiensis parasporal inclusions: in vitro cell-killing action on human cancer cells. J Appl Microbiol 86:477–486

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Mizuki E, Park YS, Saitoh H, et al. (2000) Parasporin, a human leukemic cell-recognizing parasporal protein of Bacillus thuringiensis. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 7:625–634

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Namba A, Yamagiwa M, Amano H, et al. (2003) The cytotoxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. coreanensis A1519 strain against the human leukemic T cell. Biochim Biophys Acta 1622:29–35

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Nishimoto T, Yoshisue H, Ihara K, Sakai H, Komano T (1994) Functional analysis of block 5, one of the highly conserved amino acid sequences in the 130-kDa CryIVA protein produced by Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. FEBS Lett 348:249–254

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Ohba M (1996) Bacillus thuringiensis populations naturally occurring on mulberry leaves: a possible source of the populations associated with silkworm-rearing insectaries. J Appl Bacteriol 80:56–64

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ohba M (1997) Three Bacillus thuringiensis flagellar serovars widely occurring in natural environments of Japan. J Basic Microbiol 37:71–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ohba M, Aizawa K (1986) Insect toxicity of Bacillus thuringiensis isolated from soils of Japan. J Invertebr Pathol 47:12–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Page RDM (1996) TREEVIEW: an application to display phylogenetic trees on personal computers. Conput Appl Biosci 13:357–358

    Google Scholar 

  18. Roh JY, Park HW, Jin BR, Kim HS, Yu YM, Kang SK (1996) Characterization of novel non-toxic Bacillus thuringiensis isolated from Korea. Lett Appl Microbiol 23:249–252

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Sher D, Fishman Y, Zhang M, et al. (2005) Hydralysins, a new category of β-pore-forming toxins in Cnidaria. J Biol Chem 280:22847–22855

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) CLUSTAL W: inproving the sensitivity of progressive multiple sequence alignment through sequence weighting, position-specific gap penalties and weight matrix choice. Nucleic Acids Res 22:4673–4680

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Yamashita S, Akao T, Mizuki E, et al. (2000) Characterization of the anti-cancer-cell parasporal proteins of a Bacillus thuringiensis isolate. Can J Microbiol 46:913–919

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This study was supported, in part, by research grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University, Tsushima-Naka 3-1-1, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Tohru Hayakawa, Rie Kanagawa, Yosuke Kotani, Mayumi Kimura, Masashi Yamagiwa & Hiroshi Sakai

  2. Department of Genetic Engineering, Kinki University, Wakayama, 649-6493, Japan

    Yoshiharu Yamane & So Takebe

Authors
  1. Tohru Hayakawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rie Kanagawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yosuke Kotani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mayumi Kimura
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Masashi Yamagiwa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yoshiharu Yamane
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. So Takebe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Hiroshi Sakai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hiroshi Sakai.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hayakawa, T., Kanagawa, R., Kotani, Y. et al. Parasporin-2Ab, a Newly Isolated Cytotoxic Crystal Protein from Bacillus thuringiensis . Curr Microbiol 55, 278–283 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-006-0351-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-006-0351-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation