Cloning of a novel cryIC-type gene from a strain of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. galleriae

A novel cryIC-type gene was isolated from a strain of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. galleriae. A new polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique with a set of several oligonucleotide primer pairs specific to the cryIC gene was used to screen a number of B. thuringiensis strains. PCR amplified several DNA fragments ranging from 100 bp to 1 kb for B. thuringiensis strains containing a cryIC gene. PCR fragments amplified from the Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. galleriae HD29 DNA differed from the fragments amplified from other cryIC-containing strains, indicating strain HD29 contained a novel cryIC-type gene. To isolate crystal genes homologous to cryIC, an HD29 gene library was probed with a 984-bp fragment of the amino-terminal coding region of the cryIC gene cloned from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. aizawai HD229. A putative toxin gene was isolated from a phage that hybridized strongly to the cryIC probe. Translation of the putative toxin DNA sequence revealed an open reading frame of 1,176 amino acids whose predicted molecular mass was 132.8 kDa. Comparisons of the toxin gene sequence with sequences of other cry genes indicated that this gene is a subclass of cryIC. We propose to designate this gene cryIC(b). In Escherichia coli, the cryIC(b) gene produced a protein of approximately 130 kDa toxic to Spodoptera exigua and Trichoplusia ni.