Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2025
Modifying Baculovirus Expression Vectors to Produce Secreted Plant Proteins in Insect Cells
Published on: August 20, 2018
Positive selection analysis of Cyt proteins from Bacillus thuringiensis: A conservative trend driven by negative
Leopoldo Palma1, Diego Herman Sauka2, Colin Berry3
1Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, C1425FQB, Argentina; Instituto Multidisciplinario de Investigación y Transferencia Agroalimentaria y Biotecnológica (IMITAB), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de Villa María (UNVM), Villa María, 1555, Argentina; Laboratorio de Control Biotecnológico de Plagas, Instituto BIOTECMED, Departamento de Genética, Universitat de València, Burjassot, València, 46100, Spain.
Abstract:
Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram-positive entomopathogenic bacterium that produces different pesticidal proteins: vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vpb1/Vpa2, Vip3, and Vpb4) during vegetative growth, which are secreted to the culture medium, and δ-endotoxins (Cry and Cyt) during sporulation, which accumulate into parasporal crystals. Cyt proteins are the smaller subset of δ-endotoxins targeting Diptera species. While Cry and Vip3 proteins undergo positive selection, our analysis suggests that Cyt proteins evolve following a conservative trend driven negative (purifying) selection.
