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Bacillus thuringiensis: Producer of Potent Insecticidal Toxins

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Principles of Insect Pathology

Abstract

Ishwata initially described Bacillus thuringiensis at the turn of the 19th century as the causal agent of the “sotto bacillus disease ” of the silkworm Bombyx mori. Later studies by Aoki in 1915 demonstrated that this bacterial agent produced a crystalline toxic material at sporulation. In 1911, Berliner isolated the type species Bacillus thuringiensis var. thuringiensis from the flour moth in the province of Thuringia, Germany. Following this report a series of papers demonstrated that B. thuringiensis could infect and kill a variety of lepid-opteran host insects. Until the 1970’s, all B. thuringiensis isolates were characterized as being toxic to immature insects within the order Lepidoptera. Since then, however, various B. thuringiensis subspecies have been identified which are lethal to lepidopterans, dipterans, coleopterans, and/or nematodes. At present it has been estimated that over 60,000 isolates of B. thuringiensis are being maintained in culture collections worldwide. Current programs involving the isolation and screening for B. thuringiensis by various public and private laboratories may be expected to provide new isolates active against other insect orders.

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  1. Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, USA

    Drion G. Boucias & Jacquelyn C. Pendland

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  1. Drion G. Boucias
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  2. Jacquelyn C. Pendland
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Boucias, D.G., Pendland, J.C. (1998). Bacillus thuringiensis: Producer of Potent Insecticidal Toxins. In: Principles of Insect Pathology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4915-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4915-4_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7229-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4915-4

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