Mobilization of small plasmids in Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is accompanied by specific aggregation

Mobilizations of pBC16 and pAND006, containing the replicon of the Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis plasmid pTX14-3, between strains of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis were examined. Transconjugants appeared after a few minutes and reached a maximum frequency after approximately 2 h. Plasmid pBC16 was mobilized at a frequency approximately 200 times that of pAND006. However, pAND006 was consistently transferred, suggesting that the replicon of pTX14-3 is sufficient to sustain mobilization in B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. A specific protease-sensitive coaggregation between strains of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis was found to be unambiguously correlated with plasmid transfer. Two aggregation phenotypes, Agr+ and Agr-, were identified in this subspecies. Aggregation disappeared when the optical density of the mating mixture at 600 nm exceeded approximately 1, and it did not reappear upon dilution. Aggregation was shown to involve interactions of cells with opposite aggregation phenotypes, and evidence of a proteinaceous molecule on the surface of the Agr- that is cells involved in aggregation formation is presented. Matings and selection for the presence of two antibiotic resistance plasmids followed by identification of the host cell revealed that mobilization was unidirectional, from the Agr+ cell to the Agr- cell. The aggregation phenotype was found to be transferred with high frequency (approximately 100%) in broth matings, and the appearance of Agr- isolates from Agr+ strains suggested that the loci involved in aggregation formation are located on a plasmid. No excreted aggregation-inducing signals were detected in the supernatant or culture filtrate of either the donor, the recipient, or the mating mixture.