Screening of Bacillus thuringiensis strains effective against mosquitoes

Authors

  • Rose Gomes Monnerat
  • Daniel Gerhein Souza Dias
  • Silvania Ferreira da Silva
  • Erica Soares Martins
  • Colin Berry
  • Rosana Falcão
  • Ana Cristina Menezes Mendes Gomes
  • Lilian Botelho Praça
  • Carlos Marcelo Silveira Soares

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-3921.pab2005.v40.6929

Keywords:

Culex quinquefasciatus, Aedes aegypti, bioinsecticide

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate 210 Bacillus thuringiensis strains against Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus larvae to select the most effective. These strains were isolated from different regions of Brazil and are stored in a Bacillus spp. collection at Embrapa Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia, Brasília, Brazil. The selected strains were characterized by morphological (microscopy), biochemical (SDS-PAGE 10%) and molecular (PCR) methods. Six B. thuringiensis strains were identified as mosquito-toxic after the selective bioassays. None of the strains produced the expected PCR products for detection of cry4, cry11 and cyt1A genes. These results indicate that the activity of mosquitocidal Brazilian strains are not related with Cry4, Cry11 or Cyt proteins, so they could be used as an alternative bioinsecticide against mosquitoes.

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Published

2005-02-01

How to Cite

Monnerat, R. G., Dias, D. G. S., Silva, S. F. da, Martins, E. S., Berry, C., Falcão, R., … Soares, C. M. S. (2005). Screening of <i>Bacillus thuringiensis</i> strains effective against mosquitoes. Pesquisa Agropecuaria Brasileira, 40(2), 103–106. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-3921.pab2005.v40.6929

Issue

Section

ENTOMOLOGY