Purification of the larvicidal toxin of Bacillus sphaericus and evidence for high-molecular-weight precursors.

Crystals were purified from spore-crystal complexes of Bacillus sphaericus 2362 by disruption in a French pressure cell followed by centrifugation through 48% (wt/vol) NaBr. Crystals from such preparations had a 50% lethal concentration of 6 ng of protein per ml for the larvae of the mosquito Culex pipiens. When subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions, the proteins in B. sphaericus crystals migrated in positions corresponding to 43, 63, 98, 110, and 125 kilodaltons (kDa); solubilization of the crystal at pH 12 with NaOH eliminated all but the bands at 43 and 63 kDa. Since NaOH-solubilized preparations were toxic to mosquito larvae, these proteins were purified to electrophoretic homogeneity and antiserum was obtained to each. Analysis of the two purified proteins indicated that the 43-kDa protein was toxic to mosquito larvae (50% lethal concentration, 35 ng of protein per ml), whereas the 63-kDa protein was not. Further differences between them were their amino acid compositions, their lack of immunological cross-reactivity, their opposite net charges at pH 7.5, and their susceptibility to digestion by larval midgut proteases (the 63-kDa protein was highly susceptible, whereas the 43-kDa protein was not). The sequence of the 40 N-terminal residues of the 43-kDa protein was determined and found to contain a high percentage of hydrophobic amino acids. The sequence of the 63-kDa protein could not be determined, since it had multiple N termini. By electrophoretically separating the crystal proteins and then electroblotting onto nitrocellulose paper and visualizing the bands with antisera to the 43- and 63-kDa proteins in conjunction with an immunoblot assay, it was found that the high-molecular-mass crystal proteins (98 to 125 kDa) contained antigenic determinants of both proteins. These results suggested that the lower-molecular-weight crystal proteins detected in polyacrylamide gels after electrophoresis under denaturing conditions were derivatives of one or more of the higher-molecular-weight crystal proteins. In vivo studies of the products of crystal degradation by larvae of Culex pipiens indicated that the high-molecular-weight proteins and the 63-kDa antigenic determinants were rapidly degraded and that a 40-kDa protein related to the 43-kDa toxin persisted for the duration of the experiment (4 h). Some of the studies performed with B.sphaericus 2362 were extended to strains 1593, 1691, and 2297 of this species with results which indicated a high degree of similarity between the crystal proteins of all these larvicidal strains.