In Vivo and In Vitro Interactions between Exopolysaccharides from Bacillus thuringensis HD270 and Vip3Aa11 Protein

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) secretes the nutritional insecticidal protein Vip3Aa11, which exhibits high toxicity against the fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda). The Bt HD270 extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) enhances the toxicity of Vip3Aa11 protoxin against S. frugiperda by enhancing the attachment of brush border membrane vesicles (BBMVs). However, how EPS-HD270 interacts with Vip3Aa11 protoxin in vivo and the effect of EPS-HD270 on the toxicity of activated Vip3Aa11 toxin are not yet clear. Our results indicated that there is an interaction between mannose, a monosaccharide that composes EPS-HD270, and Vip3Aa11 protoxin, with a dissociation constant of Kd = 16.75 ± 0.95 mmol/L. When EPS-HD270 and Vip3Aa11 protoxin were simultaneously fed to third-instar larvae, laser confocal microscopy observations revealed the co-localization of the two compounds near the midgut wall, which aggravated the damage to BBMVs. EPS-HD270 did not have a synergistic insecticidal effect on the activated Vip3Aa11 protein against S. frugiperda. The activated Vip3Aa11 toxin demonstrated a significantly reduced binding capacity (548.73 ± 82.87 nmol/L) towards EPS-HD270 in comparison to the protoxin (34.96 ± 9.00 nmol/L). Furthermore, this activation diminished the affinity of EPS-HD270 for BBMVs. This study provides important evidence for further elucidating the synergistic insecticidal mechanism between extracellular polysaccharides and Vip3Aa11 protein both in vivo and in vitro.