TY - JOUR AU - Ganesh, K. V. Nayan AU - Reyaz, A. L. AU - Balakrishnan, N. PY - 2019/03/08 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Molecular characterization of an indigenous lepidopteran toxic Bacillus thuringiensis strain T532 JF - Journal of Biological Control JA - JBC VL - 32 IS - 4 SE - Research Articles DO - 10.18311/jbc/2018/21604 UR - https://informaticsjournals.com/index.php/jbc/article/view/21604 SP - 246-251 AB - <em>Bacillus thuringiensis</em> Berliner (Bt) being an eco-friendly bioinsecticide is effectively used in pest management strategies and, therefore, isolation and identification of new strains effective against a broad range of target pests is important. In the present study, four indigenous <em>Bt</em> isolates (T489, T491, T495 and T532) were taken and investigated for their properties such as crystal morphology, <em>cry</em> gene(s) content and insecticidal activity. Bipyramidal, cuboidal and spherical crystals were observed. Among the four isolates only one isolate was found positive for lepidopteran specific <em>cry</em> genes. The isolate T532 which showed the presence of <em>cry1, cry2Aa</em> and <em>cry2Ab</em> genes was selected for protein profiling and bioassay. The isolate showed the presence of two proteins of molecular weights at ~135 and ~65 kDa sizes. Artificial diet based bioassay resulted in 100% mortality of the neonate larvae of <em>H. armigera</em> and <em>S. litura</em> for the isolate T532 which was comparable to that of the positive control (HD1). The full length <em>cry2A</em> gene was amplified and cloned into <em>E. coli</em> DH5α strain. The recombinant plasmids were sequenced and the sequence was deposited in GenBank nucleotide database. The accession number of the gene is MH475905. The gene was named by the <em>Bacillus thuringiensis</em> delta endotoxin nomenclature committee as <em>cry2Aa23</em>. ER -