The parasporal crystals of Bacillus pumilus strain 15.1: a potential virulence factor?

Garcia-Ramon, Diana C., Berry, Colin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9943-548X, Tse, Carmen, Alberto, Fernandez-Fernandez, Osuna, Antonio and Vilchez, Susana 2018. The parasporal crystals of Bacillus pumilus strain 15.1: a potential virulence factor? Microbial Biotechnology 11 (2) , pp. 302-316. 10.1111/1751-7915.12771

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Abstract

Bacillus pumilus strain 15.1 was previously found to cause larval mortality in the Med-fly 27 Ceratitis capitata and was shown to produce crystals in association with the spore. As 28 parasporal crystals are well-known as invertebrate-active toxins in entomopathogenic 29 bacteria such as Bacillus thuringiensis (Cry and Cyt toxins) and Lysinibacillus sphaericus (Bin 30 and Cry toxins), the B. pumilus crystals were characterised. The crystals were composed of a 31 45 kDa protein that was identified as an oxalate decarboxylase by peptide mass 32 fingerprinting, N-terminal sequencing and by comparison with the genome sequence of strain 33 15.1. Synthesis of crystals by a plasmid-cured derivative of strain 15.1 (produced using a 34 novel curing strategy), demonstrated that the oxalate decarboxylase was encoded 35 chromosomally. Crystals spontaneously solubilized when kept at low temperatures and the 36 protein produced was resistant to trypsin treatment. The insoluble crystals produced by 37 B. pumilus 15.1 did not show significant toxicity when bioassayed against C. capitata larvae, 38 but once the OxdD protein was solubilized, an increase of toxicity was observed. We also 39 demonstrate that the OxdD present in the crystals has oxalate decarboxylate activity as the 40 formation of formate was detected, which suggests a possible mechanism for B. pumilus 15.1 41 activity. To our knowledge, the characterization of the B. pumilus crystals as oxalate 42 decarboxylase is the first report of the natural production of parasporal inclusions of an 43 enzyme.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Uncontrolled Keywords:	entomopathogenic bacteria, crystal inclusions, Bacillus pumilus, plasmid curing, oxalate decarboxylase
Publisher:	Wiley Open Access
ISSN:	1751-7915
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 June 2017
Date of Acceptance:	14 June 2017
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2023 03:04
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/101581

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