Characterization, cloning, expression and bioassay of vip3 gene isolated from an Egyptian Bacillus thuringiensis against whiteflies

Throughout the vegetative life of Bacillus thuringiensis, vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vip) are produced and secreted. In the present study, the vip3 gene isolated from Bacillus thuringiensis, an Egyptian isolate, was successfully amplified (2.4 kbp) and expressed using bacterial expression system. The molecular mass of the expressed protein was verified using SDS-PAGE and western blot analysis. Whiteflies were also screened for susceptibility to the expressed Vip3 protein (LC50). In addition, ST(50) was determined to assess the kill speed of the expressed Vip3 protein against whiteflies compared to the whole vegetative proteins. The results showed that the potency of whole B. thuringiensis vegetative proteins against whiteflies was slightly higher than the expressed Vip3 protein with 4.7-fold based on LC50 value. However, the ST50 parameter showed no significant difference between both the B. thuringiensis vegetative proteins and the expressed Vip3 alone. The results showed that the vip3 gene was successfully expressed in an active form which showed high susceptibility to whiteflies based on the virulence parameters LC(50) and ST(50). To our knowledge, this study showed for the first time the high toxicity of the expressed Vip3 proteins of B. thuringiensis toward whiteflies as a hopeful and promising bio-control agent.