[Cloning of a large plasmid pBMB28 in Bacillus thuringiensis].

Bacillus thuringiensis serovar. finitimus strain YBT-020 is a typical strain with the spore-crystal association (SCA) phenotype. In our previous studies, plasmid curing experiment suggested that native plasmid pBMB28 of strain YBT-020 might contribute to the SCA phenotype. Thus, plasmid pBMB28 was cloned in order to isolate the genes related to SCA on pBMB28. Using shuttle vector pEMB0557, a shuttle genomic bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of B. thuringiensis strain YBT-020 was constructed. The plasmid pBMB231 containing crystal protein gene cry28Aa, which was located on plasmid pBMB28, was screened out. By SDS-PAGE analysis and microscopic observation, we discovered the recombinant strain BMB231 that originated from the electrotransfer strain BMB171 with pBMB231 could produce Cry28Aa protein. With the chromosome walking strategy and terminal sequencing of pBMB231, four clones covering the full length of plasmid pBMB28 were screened out from this BAC library. With pulsed gel analysis of the four BAC clones and terminal sequencing, the size of the plasmid was calculated to be 140 kb. This study additionally revealed that we could clone a large plasmid from B. thuringiensis by genomic BAC library construction and overlaping fragment screening.

Determination of plasmid copy number reveals the total plasmid DNA amount is greater than the chromosomal DNA amount in Bacillus thuringiensis YBT-1520.

Bacillus thuringiensis is the most widely used bacterial bio-insecticide, and most insecticidal crystal protein-coding genes are located on plasmids. Most strains of B. thuringiensis harbor numerous diverse plasmids, although the plasmid copy numbers (PCNs) of all native plasmids in this host and the corresponding total plasmid DNA amount remains unknown. In this study, we determined the PCNs of 11 plasmids (ranging from 2 kb to 416 kb) in a sequenced B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki strain YBT-1520 using real-time qPCR. PCNs were found to range from 1.38 to 172, and were negatively correlated to plasmid size. The amount of total plasmid DNA (∼8.7 Mbp) was 1.62-fold greater than the amount of chromosomal DNA (∼5.4 Mbp) at the mid-exponential growth stage (OD(600) = 2.0) of the organism. Furthermore, we selected three plasmids with different sizes and replication mechanisms to determine the PCNs over the entire life cycle. We found that the PCNs dynamically shifted at different stages, reaching their maximum during the mid-exponential growth or stationary phases and remaining stable and close to their minimum after the prespore formation stage. The PCN of pBMB2062, which is the smallest plasmid (2062 bp) and has the highest PCN of those tested, varied in strain YBT-1520, HD-1, and HD-136 (172, 115, and 94, respectively). These findings provide insight into both the total plasmid DNA amount of B. thuringiensis and the strong ability of the species to harbor plasmids.