Contents - Faperta

270 Biotechnological Approaches for Pest Management and Ecological Sustainability
TABLE 8.5
Genetic Engineering of Bacteria to Improve Their Biological Activity for Insect Control
Bacteria Gene/Promoter Remarks References
Bacillus thuringiensis Transformation between
strains—Condor ® , Foil ® ,
MVP ® , and M-Trak ®
Temperature- and
ultraviolet-resistant
strains
cryAa/pHT3101 and
pHT4.8, cryIIIA/pHT7911
Effective against
Carlton (1988)
Coleoptera and
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera Salama, Ali, and
Sharaby (1991)
Effective against Plutella
xylostella, Phaedon
cochleariae, and
Leptinotarsa decemlineata
Bacillus megaterium cry1Aa The transipient strain had
longer survival on leaves
of several crops
Bacillus polymyxa cry1Ac Increased plant growth,
and effective against
Scirpophaga incertulas
Lecadet et al. (1992)
Sudarsan et al. (1994)
Sudha, Jayakumar, and
Sekar (1999)
Leifsonia (Clavibactor) xyli Deliver Bt toxins — Lampel et al. (1994)
Bacillus circus Deliver Bt toxins — Mahaffe, Moar, and
Kloepper (1994)
Pseudomonas fl uorescens cry1Ac/Omegen-km Effective against Eldana
saccharina
Herrera et al. (1997)
cry1Ac/electroporation Highly effective against
Helicoverpa armigera
Pseudomonas cepacia cry1Ac/Omegen-km Colonizes the sugarcane
plants endophytically
Rhizobium leguminosarum 65 kDa polypeptide
Coleoptera toxin/pKT230
Effective against
Gastrophysa viridula and
Sitona lepidus
Duan, Zhang, and Xu
(2002a)
Black, Huckett, and
Botha (1955)
Skot et al. (1990)
Azospirillium lipoferum cryqAa/pRKC — Udayasuriyan et al. (1995)
Enterobacter gergoviae cry1A Symbiont bacteria in the
gut of Pectinophora
gossypiella
Kuzina et al. (2002)
Jordan, and Azospirillium spp. have also been used to produce and deliver the Bt proteins
(Obukowicz et al., 1986a, 1986b; Stock et al., 1990; Udayasuriyan et al., 1995).
The B. thuringiensis crystal genes have been introduced into E. coli, B. subtilis, B. megaterium,
and P. fl uorescens (Schnepf and Whiletey, 1981; Gawron-Burke and Baum, 1991).
Fermentation of recombinant pseudomonads has also been used to produce biopesticide
formulations consisting of Cry inclusions encapsulated in dead cells. These encapsulated
forms of the Cry proteins have shown improved persistence in the environment. Production
or activity of certain Cry proteins in P. fl uorescens has been improved by the use of chimeric
cry genes containing a substantial portion of the Cry1Ab carboxyl-terminal region
(Thompson et al., 1995). The rationale for using live endophytic or epiphytic bacteria as
hosts is to prolong the persistence of cry proteins in the fi eld by using a host that can
propagate itself at the site of feeding and continue to produce crystal protein. The cry1Ac
gene has been introduced into the endophytic bacterium L. xyli on an integrative plasmid