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Discovery and Description of Bacillus thuringiensis

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Bacillus thuringiensis Biotechnology

Abstract

The use of biopesticides, as a component of integrated pest management (IPM), has been gaining acceptance over the world. An entomopathogenic organism should be highly specific and effective against the target pest and should demonstrate the potential to be successfully processed by continuous production technology. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was discovered as a soil bacterium, which fulfills all these requirements and due to it has been used as a biopesticide in agriculture, forestry and mosquito control. Studies of the basic biology of Bt have shown that the insecticidal activity of Bt is due to the presence of parasporal protein inclusion bodies, also called crystals, produced during sporulation that determines its activity for insect species belonging to different orders, which act like a stomach poison causing larval death. Environmentally safe-insect control strategies based on Bt and their insecticidal crystal proteins are going to increase in the future, especially with the wide adoption of transgenic crops. In this chapter, I have summarized the discovery and the description of Bt.

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  1. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Boulevard 14 sur y Av. San Claudio, 72570, Puebla, Pue, México

    Estibaliz Sansinenea

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  1. Estibaliz Sansinenea
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Correspondence to Estibaliz Sansinenea .

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  1. Autónoma de Puebla, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Benemérita Universidad, Blv. 14 sur y Av. San Claudio, Puebla, 72570, Mexico

    Estibaliz Sansinenea

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Sansinenea, E. (2012). Discovery and Description of Bacillus thuringiensis . In: Sansinenea, E. (eds) Bacillus thuringiensis Biotechnology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3021-2_1

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