A high-throughput, in-vitro assay for Bacillus thuringiensis insecticidal proteins.

A high-throughput, in-vitro assay for Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insecticidal proteins designated as Cry was developed and evaluated for screening a large number of Cry protein variants produced by DNA shuffling. This automation-amenable assay exploits an insect cell line expressing a single receptor of Bt Cry proteins. The Cry toxin used to develop this assay is a variant of the Cry1Ab protein called IP1-88, which was produced previously by DNA shuffling. Cell mortality caused by the activated Bt Cry toxin was determined by chemical cell viability assay in 96/384-well microtiter plates utilizing CellTiter 96(®) obtained from Promega. A widely-accepted mode-of-action theory of certain Bt Cry proteins suggests that the activated toxin binds to one or more receptors and forms a pore through the insect gut epithelial cell apical membrane. A number of insect proteins such as cadherin-like protein (Cad), aminopeptidase-N (APN), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and ABC transporter (ABCC) have been identified as the receptors of Bt Cry toxins. In this study, Bt Cry toxin receptors Ostrinia nubilalis (European corn borer) cadherin-like protein (On-Cad) and aminopeptidase-N 1 and 3 (On-APN1, On-APN3) and Spodoptera frugiperda (fall armyworm) cadherin-like protein (Sf-Cad) were cloned in an insect cell line, Sf21, and a mammalian cell line, Expi293F. It was observed by ligand blotting and immunofluorescence microscopy that trypsin-activated IP1-88 bound to On-Cad and On-APN1, but not Sf-Cad or On-APN3. In contrast, IP1-88 bound only to APN1 in BBMV (Brush Border Membrane Vesicles) prepared from the third and fourth-instar O. nubilalis larval midgut. The sensitivity of the recombinant cells to the toxin was then tested. IP1-88 showed no toxicity to non-recombinant Sf21 and Expi293F. Toxicity was observed only when the On-Cad gene was cloned and expressed. Sf-Cad and On-APN1 were not able to make those cells sensitive to the toxin. Since the expression of On-Cad alone was sufficient to make both insect and mammalian cells sensitive to the IP1-88 toxin, it is not likely that a secondary receptor, which may exist specifically in the Sf21 insect cell but not in the Expi293F cell, is involved in the cytotoxicity of IP1-88.

Manipulating particle trajectories with phase-control in surface acoustic wave microfluidics.

We present a 91 MHz surface acoustic wave resonator with integrated microfluidics that includes a flow focus, an expansion region, and a binning region in order to manipulate particle trajectories. We demonstrate the ability to change the position of the acoustic nodes by varying the electronic phase of one of the transducers relative to the other in a pseudo-static manner. The measurements were performed at room temperature with 3 µm diameter latex beads dispersed in a water-based solution. We demonstrate the dependence of nodal position on pseudo-static phase and show simultaneous control of 9 bead streams with spatial control of -0.058 µm/deg ± 0.001 µm/deg. As a consequence of changing the position of bead streams perpendicular to their flow direction, we also show that the integrated acoustic-microfluidic device can be used to change the trajectory of a bead stream towards a selected bin with an angular control of 0.008 deg/deg ± 0.000(2) deg/deg.