MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY DEVELOPED AGAINST A HEMOLYSIN OF BACILLUS-THURINGIENSIS

A total of five hybridoma cell lines that produced monoclonal antibodi es (MAb) against a hemolysin (Bt-hemolysin) produced by Bacillus thuri ngiensis were established and characterized. All of these monoclonal a ntibodies reacted similarly not only to Bt-hemolysin but also to a hem olysin (Bc-hemolysin) produced by B. cereus, suggesting that the two h emolysins are immunologically indistinguishable. The MAb developed in this study was also successfully applied for rapid and simple purifica tion of both Bt- and Bc-hemolysins by immunoaffinity column chromatogr aphy, The partial N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified hemol ysins was determined to be Ile-Glu-Gln-Thr.