Diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from coffee

Rev. Biol. Trop. 52 (3): 757-764, 2004
www.ucr.ac.cr www.ots.ac.cr www.ots.duke.edu
Diversity of Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from coffee plantations
infested with the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei
Glen Arrieta1, Alejandro Hern&aacute;ndez1 &amp; Ana M. Espinoza1,2
Centro de Investigaci&oacute;n en Biolog&iacute;a Celular y Molecular (CIBCM). Ciudad de la Investigaci&oacute;n, Universidad de Costa
Rica. San Jos&eacute;, Costa Rica
Escuela de Agronom&iacute;a, Facultad de Ciencias Agroalimentarias, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Jos&eacute;. Costa Rica.
Received 10-III-2004.
Corrected 18-VIII-2004.
Accepted 25-VIII-2004.
Abstract: The coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) was first reported
infecting Costa Rican coffee plantations in the year 2000. Due to the impact that this plague has in the economy
of the country, we were interested in seeking new alternatives for the biological control of H. hampei, based on
the entomopathogenic bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. A total of 202 B. thuringiensis isolates obtained from Costa
Rican coffee plantations infested with H. hampei were analyzed through crystal morphology of the crystal inclusions and SDS-PAGE of δ-endotoxins, while 105 strains were further evaluated by PCR for the presence cry, cyt
and vip genes. Most of the Bt strains showed diverse crystal morphologies: pleomorphic (35%), oval (37%),
bipyramidal (3%), bipyramidal and oval (12%), bipyramidal, oval and pleomorphic (10%) and bipyramidal, oval
and cubic (3%). The SDS-PAGE analyses of the crystal preparations showed five strains with δ-endotoxin from
20 to 40 kDa, six from 40 to 50 kDa, seven from 50 to 60 kDa, 19 from 60 to 70 kDa, 29 from 70 to 100 kDa and
39 from 100-145 kDa. PCR analyses demonstrated that the collection showed diverse cry genes profiles having
several genes per strain: 78 strains contained the vip3 gene, 82 the cry2 gene, 45 the cry1 and 29 strains harbored
cry3-cry7 genes. A total of 13 strains did not amplified with any of the cry primers used: cry1, cry2, cry3-7, cry5,
cry11, cry12 and cry14. Forty-three different genetic profiles were found, mainly due to the combination of cry1A
genes with other cry and vip genes. The genetic characterization of the collection provides opportunities for the
selection of strains to be tested in bioassays against H. hampei and other insect pests of agricultural importance.
Rev. Biol. Trop. 52(3): 757-764. Epub 2004 Dic 15.
Key words: Bacillus thuringiensis, crystals, cry genes, δ-endotoxins, Hypothenemus hampei, coffee.
Palabras clave: Bacillus thuringiensis, cristales, genes cry, δ-endotoxinas, Hypothenemus hampei, caf&eacute;.
Coffee is an important cash crop for several Latin American countries, including Costa
Rica. Coffee production has several phytosanitary constrains however, the most important
pest is the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus
hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae). This
insect attacks coffee beans in all maturation
stages, where it carries out most of its life
cycle, causing important yield and grain quality loses (Le Pelley 1968). The most common
strategy for the control of this insect is based
on cultural practices and the application of
synthetic insecticides such as endosulphan,
known for being harmful to the environment,
contaminating superficial and underground
water, as well as for its toxicity to animals,
beneficial insects and human health. In addition, it has been demonstrated that the indiscriminate use of this insecticide induces the
emergence of resistant insect populations of H.
hampei (Brun et al. 1989). As a consequence
the search for new alternatives for the sustainable control of H. hampei is of great environmental impact.
Several entomopathogenic microorganisms are used for the biological control of
insect pests and one of the most widely used is
Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) (Samsonov et al.
1997). Bacillus thuringiensis is a Gram-positive bacterium that synthesizes during sporulation crystal inclusions constituted by
δ-endotoxins of insecticidal activity, encoded
by the cry and cyt genes. These δ-endotoxins
have molecular weights between 14-160 kDa
and can be visualized under light microscopy
as inclusion bodies (Schnepf et al. 1998). The
geometry of these crystals allows a first classification system of Bt strains. In addition, Bt has
other insecticidal proteins like Vips that are
secreted during its vegetative cycle (Estruch et
al. 1996, Schnepf et al. 1998).
Cry genes were classified into 40 families
according to their amino acid sequence similarities (Samsonov et al. 1997) and the sequence
of more than 160 cry genes are known. The
specificity of the toxic effect of the δ-endotoxins against certain species makes them environmentally friendly tools for the control of insects
that are plagues of important agricultural crops.
Cry proteins that could be of particular interest
for this study are: Cry3, Cry7 and Cry8 since
they have been reported as effective against
coleopterans, whereas CryIB, Cry1K and Cry1I
have a dual effect against coleopteran and lepidopteran insects (Bravo et al. 1998). In addition, M&eacute;ndez-L&oacute;pez et al. (2003) recently
reported that Bacillus thuringiensis serovar
israeliensis is toxic to H. hampei.
The identification of Bt cry genes by PCR
has proven to be a very useful method for
strain characterization and selection (Porcar
and Ju&aacute;rez-P&eacute;rez, 2003). In addition Carozzi et
al. (1991) found correspondence of toxicity
with the amplification of particular cry gene
profiles, introducing PCR as a tool to predict
B. thuringiensis insecticidal activity.
B. thuringiensis-derived bioinsecticides
are used in conventional and organic farming
(Gustafson et al. 1997), representing 90% of
the formulated products that are available in
the market. In addition, B. thuringiensis cry
genes have allowed the development of transgenic plants that expresse δ-endotoxins reducing environmental damage caused by synthetic
insecticides and diminishing production costs.
The development of new B. thuringiensisderived bioinsecticides and the manipulation
of cry genes for plant genetic engineering
depend on the availability of δ-endotoxins that
differ in insecticidal activity. To date, there are
several genetically engineered B. thuringiensis-plants, including coffee modified with the
cry1A gene, to confer resistance against
Perileucoptera coffeella (Hatanaka et al.
1999). Thus, there is great interest in the isolation of new B. thuringiensis strains to perform
wide screening programs with the purpose of
searching for new biological activities against
insects of economic importance in agriculture
(Kim et al. 1998).
Since it has been propose that B.
thuringiensis strains co-evolved with their
insect hosts (Apoyolo et al. 1995), a more
directed approach is to isolate B. thuringiensis
strains from coffee plantations infected with
H. hampei. The main purpose of this research
was to isolate B. thuringiensis from environmental samples obtained from coffee plantations infested with the H. hampei and to
characterize them by light microscopy, SDSPAGE, and PCR using specific primers for the
cry, cyt and vip gene families.
Sample collection: 221 samples of soil,
leaf litter, fresh foliage and coffee beans from
six H. hampei infested coffee plantations were
analyzed for the presence of B. thuringiensis.
The samples were dried at 50&ordm;C for 24 hr and
later stored at room temperature. In addition,
420 groups of 10-15 insects obtained from the
dissection of infested coffee beans and insect
traps were analyzed. In addition, 23 individual
dead larvae found in infested fruits were also
evaluated. The insects were stored at 4&ordm;C in
1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes containing 70%
Isolation of B. thuringiensis: Bacteria
were isolated using the protocol described by
Travers et al. (1987). For the isolation from
insects, groups of 10-15 adults or individual
larvae were homogenized with a sterile pestle
in Eppendorf tubes contained LB medium and
incubated overnight at 30&deg;C. An aliquot of
200&micro;l of the culture was transferred to Petri
dishes with LB-agar medium and incubated at
30&deg;C for 18-24 h. Sporulated colonies with
typical B. thuringiensis morphology were preserved on filter paper at room temperature.
microscopy: The cell suspensions were fixed
to a micro slide by heating, and stained with
Coomassie blue for 2 min and observed under
a light microscope (Nikon Eclipse E-200). For
scanning electron microscopy, diluted sporecrystal suspensions were placed on aluminum
stubs and air-dried. Samples were coated with
gold in a Fullam EMS-76M Evaporator for 5
min, examined and photographed with a
Hitachi S-2360N at 10-15 kv and observed at
magnifications between 2000 and 24000X.
Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis:
Spore-crystal suspensions were used for protein analyses in 10% SDS-polyacrylamide
gels. Molecular weight markers (BIO-RAD
161-0304) were used to determine the molecular weight of the proteins.
DNA extractions: The protocol for DNA
extraction described by Chen and Kuo (1993)
was used and DNA concentrations were estimated by fluorometry at 280 nm (Quantech
fluorometer, model FM1 109535).
PCR analysis: The following primers
were used: cry1 family (cry1Aa, cry1Ab,
cry1Ac, cry1Ad, cry1B, cry1C, cry1D, cry1E
and cry1F), cry3-cry7, cry5-cry10, cry8,
cry11, cry12, cry14, cyt (Bravo et al. 1998)
vip1, vip2 and vip3 (Bravo 2003, personal
communication) and cry2 (Ben-Dov et al.
1997). PCR conditions were used as follows:
25 mM MgCl2, 10mM dNTPs, 20 &micro;M of each
primer and 2,5 U Taq polymerase. In addition,
1&micro;l of DNA at a concentration of 25 ng/&micro;l was
used. The PCR program was: one denaturing
cycle of 2 min at 95&deg;C, 30 cycles of 1 min at
95&deg;C, 1 min at 48-54&deg;C, 1 min at 72&deg;C, and a
final extension cycle of 5 min at 72&deg;C. PCR
products were analyzed by gel electrophoresis
in 1% agarose gels.
Three hundred strains out of a total of 641
environmental samples examined showed
colonial morphology similar to Bacillus
thuringiensis. Light microscopy demonstrated
that 202 strains presented diverse crystal morphologies: pleomorphic (35%), oval (37%),
bipyramidal (3%), bipyramidal and oval
(12%), bipyramidal, oval and pleomorphic
(10%), bipyramidal, oval and cubic (3%) (Fig.
1). Crystal diversity was confirmed using scanning electron microscopy, showing that some
Fig. 1. Crystal morphology distribution of Bacillus thuringiensis strain collection, isolated from
Costa Rican coffee agroecosystem.
strains presented the crystal adhered to the
spore (Fig. 2).
Strains that presented crystals were later
analyzed by SDS-PAGE to estimate the molecular weight of the Cry proteins. B. thuringiensis strains presented δ-endotoxins with MWs
between 20 and 145 kDa but the most common
pattern was composed of proteins with MWs
between 60-140 kDa (Fig. 3). Five strains presented δ-endotoxin from 20 to 40 kDa, six
and 39 from 100-145 kDa.
PCR analyses showed that from a total of
105 strains, 82 had the cry2 gene, 45 cry1, 29
cry3-cry7 and 78 the vip3 gene. No amplification was observed for the cry5, cry14, and
cry12 and cyt genes. Only one strain amplified
with cry11 (Fig. 4). The 45 strains that amplified with the general primer for cry1 family
were further characterized with specific
primers for this subfamily. It was observed that
36 strains presented cry1D, 37 cry1Aa, 35
cry1Ab and 33 cry1Ac genes, in contrast to
other genes that were less frequent, such as
cry1E (4 strains) or cry1F genes (4 strains)
(Fig. 5). A total of 43 different genetic profiles
were found, mainly due to the combination of
cry1A genes with other cry and vip genes. It
was also frequent to find strains that presented
combinations of the cry1, cry2 and cry3cry7genes. In addition two strains presented
the genes cry1, cry3-cry7 and cry8. Ten strains
only amplified with the vip3 primers and three
did not amplified with any of the primers used.
A collection of 202 B. thuringiensis
strains were isolated from Costa Rican coffee
plantations infested with H. hampei. These
strains were analyzed by light microscopy,
providing evidence that they produce parasporal crystals. The great diversity observed in
crystal morphology for a given strain and
between strains could be related to the presence of different and novel δ-endotoxins (Fig
Fig. 2. Scanning electron micrographs of the diverse crystal morphologies of a selection of Bacillus thuringiensis
strains of the Costa Rica. A) CIBCM-800 strain showing
bipyramidal crystals (bc) and spore (sp) (Bar = 1,2 &micro;m). B)
Bipyramidal (bc), oval (oc) and cubic crystal (cc) of the
strain CIBCM-515 (Bar = 1,0 &micro;m). C) Diverse bipyramidal crystal of the strain CIBCM-600 (Bar = 1,4 &micro;m).
Fig. 3. Cry protein SDS-PAGE of eight Bacillus thuringiensis strains. Lane 1: CIBCM-5191 showing a band of 124 kDa,
lane 2: CIBCM-519 showing two bands of 92 and 62 kDa, lanes 3 and 6: molecular weight markers, lane 4: CIBCM-523
showing a band of approximately 129 kDa, lane 5: CIBCM-525 with two typical bands of 130 kDa and 60 kDa, lane 7:
CIBCM-5401 showing a prominent band of 140 kDa. Lanes 8, 9 and 10, strains CIBCM-540, CIBCM-541 and CIBCM542 showing three bands of 140, 90 and 62 kDa.
Fig. 4. Distribution of cry, cyt and vip genes of the 105 Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from Costa Rican coffee
2), particularly for those strains that did not
amplified with any of the primers tested. These
strains may contain insecticidal proteins with
specificity towards other insect orders.
It is interesting to notice that while most of
the B. thuringiensis strains produce free crystals
in the mother cell compartment, it was observed
that some presented the crystal adhered to the
Fig. 5. cry1 gene family distribution of Bacillus thuringiensis strain collection isolated from Costa Rican coffee agroecosystems.
spore. It is well known that the spore and crystal are liberated to the environment by the action
of lytic enzymes that destroy the membrane that
contains them (Bechtel &amp; Bulla 1976).
However, the absence of this step in some
strains of this collection is similar to the one
observed in Bacillus sphaericus, were the binary protein crystal is adhered to the spore and
covered by the exosporium membrane.
The diversity of molecular weights of the
δ-endotoxins observed in the SDS-PAGE
analyses, suggest that there are strains
expressing different Cry proteins that could be
toxic against coleopterans, like Cry3 (73kDa), Cry7 (130-kDa), Cry8 (130-kDa),
Cry1B (140-kDa), Cry34 (14-kDa), Cry37
(14-kDa), Cry23 (29-kDa), Cry22 (76-kDa)
and Cry35 (44-kDa). It is also interesting to
notice that strains with low MWs of 20 to 40
kDa did not amplified with cyt genes, so they
could contain other type of insecticidal proteins like cry15. In addition, strains that only
amplified with vip3 genes, presented proteins
in the SDS-PAGE with MWs similar to Cry
proteins, which suggests that they may contain other Cry proteins.
The identification of cry, cyt and vip genes
in the B. thuringiensis collection is important,
since the biological activity of several Cry proteins is known. This allows the selection of
strains to be used in the bioassays for specific
insect species (Samsonov et al. 1997). The
abundance of strains containing vip3 genes
(74%) is a novel finding, if compared to the
15% previously reported by Estruch and collaborators (1996). Vip3 protein has been
reported to be toxic for lepidopterans. On the
other hand, the genes that code for the Vip1
and Vip2 proteins described as toxic to
coleopterans, were found in lower frequencies,
but always associated to the vip3 gene.
The most common cry genes found in
nature are those within the cry1 subfamily
(Porcar and Ju&aacute;rez-P&eacute;rez 2003). The most
abundant gene found in our collection was
cry2, and the second most abundant was the
cry1 gene family. Several reports show a high
frequency of certain cry1 gene combinations,
for example the linkage cry1C-cry1D (Bravo
et al. 1998, Ferrandis et al. 1999). The cry1Ccry1D linkage may be explained by their common location on the same replicon (Sanchis et
al. 1988). However, in this study cry1D gene
was found alone at a relatively high frequency
(24 strains) and only 7 strains presented such
linkage. The absence of cry1C may be the
result of a deletion or a negative selection of
cry1C from an ancestral cry1C-cry1D linkage
(Ferrandis et al. 1999). One interesting observation was the high frequency of cry1D in
combination with those of the subfamily
cry1A. The opposite case was observed with
the cry1E and cry1F genes, since only eight
strains contained these genes. It is also known
that cry1B is found at low frequency (Porcar
and Ju&aacute;rez-P&eacute;rez), however eleven strains of
this collection contained this gene; this could
be relevant for the purpose of this study
because of the known activity of cry1B against
Strains with the cry3-cry7 and cry8 genes
are also important in our collection due to their
activity against coleopterans (Bernhard et al.
1986). The abundance of these genes in this
collection is similar to their prevalence in the
collection reported by Bravo et al. (1998). In
total, there are 40 strains with toxic potential
for coleopterans: 36 strains containing the cry
3-cry7 genes and four strains with cry 8 genes,
in addition to eleven strains that have the
cry1B genes. However, the strains that did not
amplified with cry3, cry7, cry8 and cry1B
genes, should be tested in bioassays with H.
hampei because they might contain other
genes of interest. It is important to notice that
even though no B. thuringiensis israelensislike strains were isolated from coffee plantations, there are several Bti strains isolated from
Costa Rican National Parks (Arrieta 2003) that
could be tested against the coffee berry borer
since this strain was recently reported toxic to
H. hampei (M&eacute;ndez-Lop&eacute;z et al. 2003). In
conclusion, CIBCM-B. thuringiensis collections might contain strains with potential activities against H. hampei as well as other Cry
proteins active against other insect species,
therefore, they will be tested in bioassays
against specific insect pests in the future.
We want to acknowledge the Fundaci&oacute;n
para la Cooperaci&oacute;n Costa Rica-Estados
Unidos de Am&eacute;rica (CR.USA) and the
Programa de Cooperaci&oacute;n del Gobierno de
M&eacute;xico for the financial support of the project.
We express our acknowledgment to CYTED
for supporting the Bt-network of which our
laboratory is part. We also thank Alejandra
Bravo from the Instituto de Biotecnolog&iacute;a de la
Universidad Autonoma de M&eacute;xico, for critically reading the manuscript.
En el a&ntilde;o 2000 se report&oacute; por primera vez la principal plaga del cafeto, conocida como broca (Hypothenemus
hampei Ferrari) (Coleoptera: Scolitidae) en plantaciones
de este cultivo en Costa Rica. Debido al impacto que esta
plaga tiene en la econom&iacute;a del pa&iacute;s, surgi&oacute; la necesidad de
encontrar una alternativa para el control biol&oacute;gico de esta
plaga, basadas en la bacteria entomopat&oacute;gena Bacillus
thuringiensis. El objetivo de este trabajo fue aislar y caracterizar cepas de Bacillus thuringiensis a partir de plantaciones de caf&eacute; infestadas con H. hampei. Se aislaton 202
cepas que se analizaron mediante la morfolog&iacute;a del cristal,
SDS-PAGE de las δ-endotoxinas, mientras que 105 cepas
se evaluaron mediante PCR para determinar la presencia
de genes cry, cyt y vip. La mayor&iacute;a de las cepas presentaron diversas morfolog&iacute;as del cristal: pleom&oacute;rficos (35%),
ovalados (37%), bipiramidales (3%), bipiramidales y ovalados (12%), bipiramidales, ovalados y pleom&oacute;rficos
(10%) y bipiramidales, ovalados y c&uacute;bicos (3%). El an&aacute;lisis electorfor&eacute;tico de las prote&iacute;nas mostr&oacute; que 5 cepas
conten&iacute;an δ-endotoxinas con pesos moleculares entre los
20 y 40 kDa, 6 entre los 40 y 50 kDa, 7 entre los 50 y 60
kDa, 19 cepas entre los 60 y 70 kDa, 29 entre los 70 y 100
kDa y 39 cepas entre los 100 y 145 kDa. Los an&aacute;lisis mediante PCR mostr&oacute; que la colecci&oacute;n presenta una gran diversidad de genes cry, observ&aacute;ndose varios genes por cepa:
78 cepas presentaron el gen vip3, 82 el gen cry2, 45 el gen
cry1 y 29 cepas los genes cry3 y cry7. Un total de 13 cepas
no amplificaron con los iniciadores cry1, cry2, cry3-7, cry5,
cry11cry12 y cry14. Se encontraron 43 perfiles gen&eacute;ticos diferentes, detect&aacute;ndose principalmente la combinaci&oacute;n de
genes cry1A con otros genes cry o vip. La caracterizaci&oacute;n
gen&eacute;tica de esta colecci&oacute;n provee informaci&oacute;n importante
para la selecci&oacute;n de cepas de Bacillus thuringiensis que se
evaluar&aacute;n mediante bioensayos contra Hypothenemus hampei u otras plagas de importancia econ&oacute;mica.
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