Complete genome sequences of two Bacillus thuringiensis serovar kurstaki strains isolated from Lebanon and Tunisia, highly toxic against lepidopteran larvae

Abstract

Bacillus thuringiensis -based products are key in the biopesticides market. Bacillus thuringiensis kurstaki strains Lip and BLB1 were isolated from Lebanese and Tunisian soils, respectively. These strains are highly toxic against lepidopteran larvae, Ephestia kuehniella . Here, we report Lip and BLB1 complete genomes, including their plasmid and toxin contents.

Draft Genome Sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis INTA 103-23 Reveals Its Insecticidal Properties: Insights from the Genomic Sequence

“…Addressing the challenge of insect genetic resistance, particularly in transgenic crops expressing B. thuringiensis genes, necessitates the exploration of alternative strategies. The advent of revolutionary next-generation sequencing technology has facilitated the sequencing of numerous genomes from B. thuringiensis, aiming to unveil new invertebrate toxic proteins applicable to the biological control of agricultural pests and disease vectors (mosquitoes) [11][12][13].…”

“…Genome assembly was performed de novo using the SPAdes v3.15.4 genome assembler [13], and the resulting assembly underwent a rigorous quality control assessment with CheckM v1.0.18 [18] and QUAST v4.4 [19]. To evaluate the taxonomy-wise completeness, the percentage of one-copy orthologs from the "Bacillales_odb10" database was determined using BUSCO v5.5.0 [20].…”