Prashant R. Shingote , Mangesh P. Moharil , Dipti R. Dhumale , Amit G. Deshmukh , Pravin V. Jadhav , Mahendra S. Dudhare , Niraj S. Satpute

Biotechnology Centre, Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Agricultural University, Akola (MS), 444 104, India
Author    Correspondence author
Bt Research, 2013, Vol. 4, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/bt.2013.04.0003
Received: 27 Jun., 2013    Accepted: 10 Jul., 2013    Published: 30 Aug., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Moharil et al., 2013, Distribution of vip Genes, Protein Profiling and Determination of Entomopathogenic Potential of Local Isolates of Bacillus thuringiensis, Bt Research, Vol.4, No.3 14-20 (doi: 10.5376/bt.2013.04.0003)

The aim of this study was to screen the Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) strains isolated from local ecological niche for the presence of vegetative insecticidal protein (vip) genes and its characterization. PCR screening was carried out to determine different vip genes viz., vip1/vip2 and vip3 genes, harboured by native Bt isolates using four gene specific primers. The PCR results depicted the presence of all three vip-type genes in these isolates. Strains containing vip3-type genes were the most abundant (12.5%) in local isolates, followed by vip1/vip2-type genes (10%). Insect bioassays for these proteins were conducted against Helicoverpa armigera (H. armigera). Four Bt isolates PDKV-08 (161.80), PDKV-21 (173.62), NCIM-5110 (170.57) and NCIM-5132 (178.61) depict lower LC₅₀ values against H. armigera than the standard HD-1 (190.42). The present foundation work can be used for the production of more effective Bt based biopesticide and the identified genes can be explored for the production of next generation insect resistant transgenic plants.

Bt; Vegetative insecticidal proteins; Insect bioassay