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Characterization of Tunisian Bacillus thuringiensis Strains with Abundance of kurstaki Subspecies Harbouring Insecticidal Activities Against the Lepidopteran Insect Ephestia kuehniella

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Abstract

The study of 257 crystal-producing Bacillus thuringiensis isolates from bioinsecticide free soil samples collected from different sites in Tunisia, was performed by PCR amplification, using six primer pairs specific for cry1, cry2, cry3, cry4, and vip3A genes, by the investigation of strain plasmid pattern, crystal morphology and delta-endotoxin content and by the assessment of insecticidal activities against the lepidopteran insect Ephestia kuehniella. Based on plasmid pattern study, 11 representative strains of the different classes were subjected to morphological and molecular analyses. The comparison of the PFGE fingerprints confirmed the heterogeneity of these strains. B. thuringiensis kurstaki strains, harbouring at the same time the genes cry1A, cry2, cry1Ia, and vip3A, were the most abundant (65.4%). 33.34% of the new isolates showed particular delta-endotoxin profiles but no PCR products with the used primer sets. B. thuringiensis israelensis was shown to be also very rare among the Tunisian B. thuringiensis isolates diversity. These findings could have considerable impacts for the set up of new pest control biological agents.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the “Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technology”, the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) of Qatar National Research Fund number 27-6-7-24, the AUF “Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie” and the NEPAD “New Partnership for Africa Development”. We thank the “Institut de l’olivier de Sfax, Tunisia” for providing us with E. kuehniella larvae.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Biopesticides, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, P.O. Box 1177, 3018, Sfax, Tunisia

    Imen Saadaoui, Najeh Belguith-Ben Hassan, Lobna Abdelkefi-Mesrati, Souad Rouis & Samir Jaoua

  2. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Roda Al-Thani, Fatma Al-Saadi & Samir Jaoua

  3. Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, NRS/INSERM/ULP, 1, Rue Laurent Fries, BP163, 67404, Illkirch-Graffentaden, France

    Patrick Schultz

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  1. Imen Saadaoui
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  8. Samir Jaoua
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Correspondence to Samir Jaoua.

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Saadaoui, I., Al-Thani, R., Al-Saadi, F. et al. Characterization of Tunisian Bacillus thuringiensis Strains with Abundance of kurstaki Subspecies Harbouring Insecticidal Activities Against the Lepidopteran Insect Ephestia kuehniella . Curr Microbiol 61, 541–548 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-010-9650-1

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