Plasmid Patterns of Bacillus thuringiensis Type Strains
Practically all Bacillus thuringiensis strains contain a set of self-replicating, extrachromosomal DNA molecules or plasmids, which vary in number and size in the different strains. The plasmid patterns obtained from gel electrophoresis have previously been used as a tool to characterize strains, bu...
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Published in | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 74; no. 1; pp. 125 - 129 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington, DC
American Society for Microbiology
01.01.2008
American Society for Microbiology (ASM) |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Practically all Bacillus thuringiensis strains contain a set of self-replicating, extrachromosomal DNA molecules or plasmids, which vary in number and size in the different strains. The plasmid patterns obtained from gel electrophoresis have previously been used as a tool to characterize strains, but comparison of the plasmid patterns has been limited in the number and diversity of strains analyzed. In this report, we were able to compare the plasmid patterns of 83 type strains (out of 84) and 47 additional strains from six serotypes. The information obtained from this comparison showed the importance of this tool as a strain characterization procedure and indicates the complexity and uniqueness of this feature. For example, with one exception, all type strains showed a unique plasmid pattern. All were unique in such a way that none showed even a single comigrating plasmid in the agarose gels, and therefore, cluster analysis was impossible, indicating that plasmid patterns are qualitative rather than quantitative features. Furthermore, comparison between strains belonging to the same serotype showed a great difference in variability. Some serotypes (e.g., israelensis) showed the same basic pattern among all its strains, while other serotypes (e.g., morrisoni) showed a great diversity of patterns. These results indicate that plasmid patterns are valuable tools to discriminate strains below the serotype level. |
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Bibliography: | http://aem.asm.org/contents-by-date.0.shtml ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Corresponding author. Mailing address: CINVESTAV, Apartado Postal 629, 36500 Irapuato, Guanajuato, México. Phone: 52-462-623-9643. Fax: 52-462-624-5996. E-mail: jibarra@ira.cinvestav.mx Present address: Instituto de Recursos, Universidad del Mar, Campus Puerto Escondido, Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, México. |
ISSN: | 0099-2240 1098-5336 |
DOI: | 10.1128/AEM.02133-07 |