Compaction of the Escherichia coli nucleoid in the cell's centre was associated with the loss of colony-forming ability; these effects were caused by induction of Cyt1Aa, the cytotoxic 27 kDa protein from Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis. Cyt1Aa-affected compaction of the nucleoids was delayed but eventually more intense than compaction caused by chloramphenicol. The possibility that small, compact nucleoids in Cyt1Aa-expressing cells resulted in DNA replication run-out and segregation following cell division was ruled out by measuring relative nucleoid length. Treatments with membrane-perforating substances other than Cyt1Aa did not cause such compaction of the nucleoids, but rather the nucleoids overexpanded to occupy nearly all of the cell volume. These findings support the suggestion that, in addition to its perforating ability, Cyt1Aa causes specific disruption of nucleoid associations with the cytoplasmic membrane. In situ immunofluorescence labelling with Alexa did not demonstrate a great amount of Cyt1Aa associated with the membrane. Clear separation between Alexa-labelled Cyt1Aa and 49,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI)-stained DNA indicates that the nucleoid does not bind Cyt1Aa. Around 2 h after induction, nucleoids in Cyt1Aa-expressing cells started to decompact and expanded to fill the whole cell volume, most likely due to partial cell lysis without massive peptidoglycan destruction.
INTRODUCTIONDuring sporulation, various subspecies of the Grampositive soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis produce large amounts of insecticidal crystal proteins (ICP), the so-called d-endotoxins , each toxic against larvae of a different group of insects. The ICP of B. thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is specific against the larvae of mosquitoes and black flies (Goldberg & Margalit, 1977;Margalith & Ben-Dov, 2000), vectors of many human infectious diseases (Service, 1986). The crystal is composed of four major polypeptides, Cry4Aa, Cry4Ba, Cry11Aa and Cyt1Aa (of 125, 135, 68 and 28 kDa, respectively), which are encoded by genes carried on the~130 kDa plasmid nicknamed pBtoxis (Ben-Dov et al., 1999). Cyt1Aa, which is not homologous to any of the known Cry toxins , is the most prominent of the four polypeptides, but it is less specific than Cry4Aa, Cry4Ba and Cry11Aa, haemolytic and cytotoxic in vitro (Thomas & Ellar, 1983b;Drobniewski & Ellar, 1988;Hofte & Whiteley, 1989). The broad cytolytic activity of Cyt1Aa has been attributed to its hydrophobicity and ability to bind zwitterionic phospholipids (Thomas & Ellar, 1983a, b). Cyt1Aa is inserted into the membrane to create cation-selective single channels of 1-2 nm in diameter, leading to colloid-osmotic lysis (Knowles & Ellar, 1987;Knowles et al., 1989), and induces leakage of low-molecular-mass substances from lipid vesicles (Drobniewski & Ellar, 1988.Seven cytolytic, mosquitocidal-specific toxins are currently known (Earp & Ellar, 1987;Drobniewski & Ellar, 1989;Yu et al., 1991;Koni & Ellar, 1993;Cheong & Gill, 1997;Guerchicoff et al., 1997;Thiery et al., 199...