Effect of Promoters and Plasmid Copy Number on Cyt1A Synthesis and Crystal Assembly in Bacillus thuringiensis.

Cyt1Aa is a major mosquitocidal protein synthesized during sporulation of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, composing more than 50% of its parasporal body. This high level of synthesis is due to several factors including three strong sporulation-dependent promoters, a strong transcription termination sequence, and an associated 20-kDa helper protein. Cyt1Aa's toxicity is low compared to the Cry proteins of this species, namely, Cry4Aa, Cry4Ba, and Cry11Aa, but it nevertheless plays an important role in the biology of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis in that it synergizes their mosquitocidal toxicity and suppresses the evolution of resistance. In the present study, the effects of using different cyt1Aa promoter combinations and plasmid copy number on synthesis of Cyt1Aa were evaluated. Using the 4Q7 (plasmid-cured) strain of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis as an experimental host, a plasmid copy number of two or three yielded no Cyt1Aa, whereas a copy number of four yielded only small crystals, even when expression was driven by one of the wild-type promoters. However, using all three wild-type promoters and a plasmid copy number of 20 yielded Cyt1A crystals tenfold larger than those produced by one promoter and a plasmid copy number of four. High levels of Cyt1Aa synthesis resulted in significantly fewer spores per unit medium and imperfectly formed crystals. Similar results were obtained when Cyt1Aa synthesis was evaluated using the same expression constructs in a mutant strain of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis that lacks the cyt1Aa gene.