Insecticidal bacterium isolated from an ant lion larva from Munakata, Japan

Abstract

Twenty bacteria were isolated from four ant lion larvae. The isolates were classified into three groups by biological characteristics. Since Group I, Group II and Group III were isolated from individual larvae Kuo1, Kuo3, 4 and Kuo2, respectively, with exception of one isolate Kuo2‐1, each ant lion tested had its own dominant bacterial flora. Groups I and II were closer to Serratia liquefaciens and Enterobacter cloacae, respectively, whereas Group III could not be identified by the test used. The phylogenetic analysis of GroEL amino acid sequences revealed that Group I, II and III were related to those of Serratia spp., E. cloacae and Salmonella spp. –Escherichia/Shigella spp., respectively. Among these groups, Group I was highly virulent against Bombyx mori and Periplaneta americana, and caused 100% mortality within 24 h. The other two groups (Group II and III) were avirulent to these insect species. The culture filtrate of Group I caused killing activity to B. mori larvae and the insecticidal substance was purified from culture filtrate of Group I bacterium. Since the insecticidal activity highly correlated with proteolytic activity in the chromatographies, Group I bacterium may secret insecticidal proteinase in vitro.

Winding paths to simplicity: genome evolution in facultative insect symbionts

“…Two species with notable insect associations include a highly virulent insect pathogen Serratia liquefaciens (Egami et al. 2009) and S. nematodiphila , which is a mutualistic symbiont of entomopathogenic nematodes (Zhang et al. 2009; Abebe et al.…”

Insect “Symbiology” Is Coming of Age, Bridging Between Bench and Field

“…were isolated from the crop and from the regurgating fluid and were shown to be insecticidal. Furthermore, bacterial cells may be injected into the prey by the predator (Egami et al 2009;Nishiwaki et al 2007) and proteases secreted by these bacteria may be involved in the liquification process of the prey content, i.e., they participate in extra-oral digestion (Egami et al 2009). It remains to be seen what relation the relatively short-lived (20-45 days) adult antlions that feed on small flies, fruit, and honeydew (Burton and Burton 2002) entertain with their yet unknown bacteria.…”

Draft Genome Sequence of Entomopathogenic Serratia liquefaciens Strain FK01

“…Serratia liquefaciens Kuo1-1, which was originally isolated from the ant lion, is highly virulent to the silkworm, Bombyx mori , and the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana (1). A spontaneous nalidixic acid-resistant mutant, FK01, was isolated from Kuo1-1 for genetic experiments; this mutant retained virulence against the silkworm (2).…”