Biochemical Profile of Bacillus thuringiensis Strains Obtained from Middle Tennessee
Abstract
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) was first isolated in the early 1900s, and it has become of interest because of its insecticidal capability. It is a Gram-positive endospore-forming organism that produces crystal proteins that serve as toxins to select insects. Thus, the organism today is exploded as a bioinsecticide, and collections of Bt strains are available in many labs. The purpose of the work presented here was to assess the biochemical ability of 72 strains collected in Middle Tennessee and two prototype strains, BtI and BtK. The approached used in this study was to determine the biochemical profile of each strain using the Biolog Identification System, which allowed for the assessment of the metabolic activity of each strain in the presence of 95 different substrates. It was hypothesized that each strain would show similar biochemical patterns varying based on area of isolation. It was found that the strains clustered into two major groups having common substrates, and these groups gave two and three sub-clusters. Thus, it was concluded that the strains of this study had varying metabolic ability for the substrates provided in the Biolog Gen III Microplates; however, there were certain substrates that were commonly used by the strains used in this study.
Subject Area
Biology|Microbiology
Recommended Citation
Fahdah Alshammari,
"Biochemical Profile of Bacillus thuringiensis Strains Obtained from Middle Tennessee"
(2015).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI1592014.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI1592014