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. 2013 Jun 10;8(6):e66061.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066061. Print 2013.

Phylogenetic distribution of phenotypic traits in Bacillus thuringiensis determined by multilocus sequence analysis

Michael B Blackburn  1 , Phyllis A W Martin, Daniel Kuhar, Robert R Farrar Jr, Dawn E Gundersen-Rindal
Affiliations

Phylogenetic distribution of phenotypic traits in Bacillus thuringiensis determined by multilocus sequence analysis

Michael B Blackburn et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Diverse isolates from a world-wide collection of Bacillus thuringiensis were classified based on phenotypic profiles resulting from six biochemical tests; production of amylase (T), lecithinase (L), urease (U), acid from sucrose (S) and salicin (A), and the hydrolysis of esculin (E). Eighty two isolates representing the 15 most common phenotypic profiles were subjected to phylogenetic analysis by multilocus sequence typing; these were found to be distributed among 19 sequence types, 8 of which were novel. Approximately 70% of the isolates belonged to sequence types corresponding to the classical B. thuringiensis varieties kurstaki (20 isolates), finitimus (15 isolates), morrisoni (11 isolates) and israelensis (11 isolates). Generally, there was little apparent correlation between phenotypic traits and phylogenetic position, and phenotypic variation was often substantial within a sequence type. Isolates of the sequence type corresponding to kurstaki displayed the greatest apparent phenotypic variation with 6 of the 15 phenotypic profiles represented. Despite the phenotypic variation often observed within a given sequence type, certain phenotypes appeared highly correlated with particular sequence types. Isolates with the phenotypic profiles TLUAE and LSAE were found to be exclusively associated with sequence types associated with varieties kurstaki and finitimus, respectively, and 7 of 8 TS isolates were found to be associated with the morrisoni sequence type. Our results suggest that the B. thuringiensis varieties israelensis and kurstaki represent the most abundant varieties of Bt in soil.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Un-rooted maximum likelihood analysis of Clade 1, with sequence types and corresponding phenotypes found in our sample indicated.
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of isolates with the indicated phenotype observed in the ST. Light text indicates varieties and phenotypes described by de Barjac ; B. anthracis added for reference.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Un-rooted maximum likelihood analysis of Clade 2, with sequence types and corresponding phenotypes found in our sample indicated.
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of isolates with the indicated phenotype observed in the ST. Light text indicates varieties and phenotypes described by de Barjac .
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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