Bacillus thuringiensis serovar mogi (flagellar serotype 3a3b3d), a novel serogroup with a mosquitocidal activity

The flagellated vegetative cells of the Bacillus thuringiensis strain K4 were agglutinated with the H3 reference antiserum and further, agglutinated with 3b and 3d monospecific factor sera but non-reactive for 3c and 3e factor sera. This creates a new serogroup with flagellar antigenic structure of 3a3b3d: B. thuringiensis serovar mogi. The strain K4 showed high activity against dipteran larvae, Anopheles sinensis and Culex pipienspallens while no lepidopteran toxicity. It produced ovoidal parasporal inclusions (crystals) whose SDS-PAGE protein profile consisted of several bands ranging from 75 to 30kDa. Through the protein identification by nano-LC-ESI-IT MS analysis, the putative peptides of Cry19Ba, Cry40ORF2, Cry27Aa and Cry20Aa were detected.